S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Old Good Stalker Evolution

Storyline Walkthrough

This walkthrough is based on Old Good Stalker Evolution (OGSE) version 0693 with default setup (at installation) with one minor exception: changed Quick Save on the B key to F6. Played at Master level. OGSE has some storyline revisions, but mostly keeps to the original while offering some additional optional tasks. In this walkthrough, I focus on those options and deviations from the original storyline. However, I should mention that this mod takes a slightly different approach to optional tasks from the original (vanilla) version in that you can often pick your reward.

I've played through this mod several times and I think I have everything, but if you know of any tasks I may have missed, please feel free to email me with instructions on how to acquire the task.

Last Revision: August 2023

kwag3.myers@gmail.com

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Bring radioactive Blood Stone artifact

Your first task is to fetch an artifact out of the center of the ravine that is northwest of Sid's bunker. As you leave the bunker, you are stopped by Seryoga Stalin. If you call him "sir" he perceives you as weak and charges you 300 RUs each time you want to enter the bunker again. Continue north up the hill going between the triangular sign and large tree. Go into the drainage tile and straight down into the ravine. Go up onto the fallen tree, turn left, and walk along the tree until you see the artifact between two large branches. Pick the artifact up and retrace your steps out. About this time you can hear a helicopter firing rockets and Sidorovich radios you to check on his contact, Tolik. When you get to the location, loot the corpses, and give Tolik the medkit.

Peacefully free the captive at the ATP

See Wolf and on to Petruha, who gives you a third option for rescuing Nimble. Ask Petruha if there's another way besides the traditional attack or go it alone. The plan is for you to wear bandit gear to get in and bluff your way into releasing Nimble. When you get to the ATP, go upstairs and talk to the bandit sleeping on the floor. Take the bottom options of the conversation to complete the mission. However, the task to Kill the Bandits at the car park remains on your PDA. If you stop to tell Petruha that the plan worked, he and his men go back to the Rookie Village. This leaves you to clear the car park by yourself.

Sidorovich Optional Missions

After you have freed Nimble from the Bandits and return to the bunker with the flash drive, there are optional tasks that you can ask Sidorovich for:

• Got any special missions for me?
• The deal with the military
• Sidorovich, do you have some personal errands? - Do the first two and start the third before you leave Cordon.
  • Find the guitar
  • The military at the anomaly
  • Mercenaries at the Cordon
  • Guest at the elevator
• I need a job. Do you have something for me? - Do the first three and start the forth before you leave Cordon. You won't get the last one for a while.
  • Hunting trophies
  • Kill the stalker
  • Find the perfected pistol
  • Find RPG-7
  • Cover the Duty detachment from the attack of the bandits in the Dark Valley
• Do you have any more interesting work?
  • Find the set of artifacts - This comes later in the game.

The deal with the military

This task can be combined with Get Wolf the dynamite and Help your fellow rookies since they all send you to the same general location. Ask Wolf why he's serious to get the task, and complete helping the fellow rookies until you get the Inspect the tunnel task. It's also best to do this task right away as there is a possibility that Loners will kill the soldiers early in the game. If that happens, make sure you get the modified Fort-12 from the Major.

This mission is a simple matter of taking a ZAZ 965 Humpback to the bridge and back again. However, there's several steps you have to follow to complete the mission. First, you have to "Get a bag of artifacts from Wolf". Pretty straight forward - walk over and ask him for his box of artifacts. Take the box/bag to the front of the Humpback, which is parked on the west side of the red brick house southwest of Wolf. The default control for opening the trunk is 0 (zero) on the numeric keypad (and not Tab). Open the trunk and put the artifacts in.

Next, you have to find some petrol. There are two cans that I know of, one in the northeast building of the car park (northeast corner of the garage) and the other in the east building of the granary (southwest corner). Take one or both back to the Rookie Village, stand behind the Humpback, and press Del or . (period) on the numeric keypad. If you have trouble figuring out which key it is, check the options. You can put both cans in the Humpback so they don't count toward your backpack weight, or the weight limit of the trunk. Stand next to the Humpback and press F to get in. Press 0 on the numeric keypad to start and stop the engine.

As you leave the camp, take the hill at an angle or you may not make it to the road. Then, turn left and drive to the bridge. Approach the commander from the south on the east edge of the road. Get as close as you can, then get out and take the artifacts out of the trunk. Give them to the commander and the weapons are automatically put in the Humpback. Then, drive back and give them to Wolf, again, getting as close as you can. Give Wolf the weapons and go collect your reward from Sidorovich. If you ask for another special mission, he sends you to Agroprom to steal the case from the military.

Find the guitar

Sidorovich sends you out to find his guitar that he loaned out and never got back. Here are the places I've found it so far:

• Along the south side of the road, west side of the tanker trailer.
• In the chimney of the middle house along the south side.
• Go to the east camp entrance and jump up on the hood of the truck on the south side of the dirt road going into the camp. The guitar is on the seat.
• Go to the second house from the entrance to the camp on the north side of the road (where Nimble sleeps). The Guitar is in the fireplace.
• Go to the northwest corner of the camp where an outhouse has its back against the west fence and there is a gap between the north wall of the outhouse and the north fence. You can't get to the guitar from inside the fence, so go to the outside corner and position yourself so you can see, and pick up the guitar.

Take it back to Sidorovich for your reward.

The military at the anomaly

Sidorovich sends you back to the ravine where some soldiers are standing guard. Before you go, be sure you have three loaves of bread, two sticks of sausage, and a bottle of vodka. Go to the soldier on the northeast side of the ravine (closest to the bridge) and ask him what they are doing there. He will ask for the snacks, and if you don't have them, you have to go back to the village and buy them (if you can find everything). Once you give the soldier the snacks, he tells you that they found a rare artifact and are guarding it. Go back to Sidorovich and report. He then sends you back to steal the artifact, which is inside the rusted truck cab. Be sure you have some anti-rad before you leave the bunker. As far as I can tell, you have these options:

1. Kill all the soldiers, then go get the artifact.
2. Run in, grab the artifact, and run back out. Once you pick it up, you take on radiation, psi holograms spawn (what I call a Psi Anomaly), and the soldiers start firing.
3. Go back to the soldier that you gave the snacks to and offer to get the artifact (1). Once you pick it up, you take on radiation and psi holograms spawn that can turn you into a zombie if they hit you. Instead of bringing the artifact to the soldier, keep going until you can give it to Sidorovich. However, the soldiers follow and attack the village.
4. Go back to the soldier that you gave the snacks to and offer to get the artifact (2). Once you pick it up, you take on radiation and psi holograms spawn that can turn you into a zombie if they hit you. Give the artifact to the soldier and walk away. Go back to the cement drain pipe, into the ravine, and use the large tank as cover to kill the soldiers. Three or four F1 grenades is all it takes. When you loot the soldier with the artifact, you don't pick up any radiation.

Give the artifact to Sidorovich to complete the task and get your reward. However, I have had one game where Sid didn't take the artifact.

Mercenaries at the Cordon

Sidorovich gives you a microphone and sends you to the Garbage to listen in on the Merc's conversation. The hardest part of this task is avoiding detection. It's best to start from the road in front of the Vehicle graveyard to avoid some heavy radiation in the lower area directly east of the graveyard. If the Bandits are in near the road in the pile of cement blocks, you'll have to take them out so you can pass by along the south end of the swamp. Once you pass the swamp, turn northeast and head toward the dead stalker. When you are directly west of the map location, turn east and find two large green bushes. Go into the bush on the left. As you near the bush you get an update, but continue into the bush to stay out of sight. Open your inventory and double-click the microphone that Sidorovich gave you. A timer starts and you have to stay undetected for about 50 seconds. When the timer runs out, you get another update to report back to Sidorovich.

When you get back to the bunker and listen to the recording, Sidorovich realizes the Mercs have planted a bomb somewhere in the Rookie Village and tells you to find it. The Mercenaries at the Cordon is complete and you get the Protect the camp from the explosion task. As you leave the bunker and approach the village, a timer starts at 3:00. The only problem is, the location changes from game to game. So, these are the locations I've found so far:

• Against the east wall of the root cellar with the white arched entrance along the north side of the road, behind a pallet.
• In the bush west of the root cellar with the white arched entrance.
• In the bush next to the trailer with the tank along the south side of the road.
• In the bush across from the well along the north side of the road.

It's a good idea to save before you go looking for the bomb in case you don't find it in time, or if you cut the wrong wire (this also changes from game to game). When you find the bomb, pick it up and pick a wire. If it doesn't blow up, the task is complete, and you get a message from Sidorovich telling you to go Kill the mercenaries who planted the bomb. Back to the Garbage and east of the swamp. Only, this time, stay along the south end of the wooded area, between the hills and tree line. The Mercs will be to the north of you, so make your way to the nearest tree so you have some cover. Throw a few grenades into the area where the Mercs are and, hopefully, wound them all enough that you don't have to fire a shot. Otherwise, you might get a grenade coming your way. When the last Mercenary is put down, you get an update to collect your reward from Sidorovich, which includes some frag grenades and a really nice shot gun.

Depending on the time of day, you can go back to Sidorovich for your reward now, or wait until your next visit to Cordon. Ideally, you want to move to Agroprom in the late afternoon/early evening so that you exit the underground after 23:00. I usually plan on less than two hours game time to get through the underground.

Guest at the elevator

After you have completed the first three "personal errands" you can get this task and can complete the first part before leaving Cordon again. When you get to the grain elevator, you get shot, but then there's a corpse suddenly in the southeast corner of the mill. If there are soldiers at the bridge, they can get you with a grenade, so try to stay out of their site. Loot the body and pick up the sniper rifle to get an update that tells you to take the weapon to Sidorovich.

When you show the gun to Sidorovich, he recognizes the markings on the stock as Barkeep's and tells you to take the gun to him and ask why this guy is trying to kill you. When you confront Barkeep, he claims it's all a mistake and he was forced into arranging a hit on another stalker. Now that the sniper is dead, the deal may go south, leaving Barkeep in a bad spot. He sends you back to the Cordon to finish the job.

The target area is the Military Outpost at the north end of the Cordon. You can wait until your travels take you there. At the outpost, wait near the gate where you can see the hitman crouching behind the wall. Sometimes he gets his target, and sometimes his target gets him. Either way, you have to finish the survivor off and go back to Barkeep to complete the task.

Hunting trophies

This is a set of tasks where you bring Sidorovich mutant parts and he lets you pick your reward. Ask Sidorovich, "I need a job. Do you have something for me?" He gives you some options from the vanilla version, such as Destroy the bandit camp at the Garbage and Kill the bandit leader. One additional option is the Hunting trophies. Unusual hobby task. I'll let Sid explain the task, but when you turn in the trophy, a dialog opens with a list of reward choices for you to pick pick from. Double-click your choice, or choices (depending on how many you qualify for) to move from Trader's items to Your reward and click Take items. You can also click Take money if none of the items interest you. Other tasks are for a cat tail, Pseudodog tail, etc.

Kill the stalker

Sidorovich has a contract on Nimble and tells you to take him out quietly. If you kill Nimble while he's in his usual spot, sleeping in the middle house on the north side of the road in the Rookie Village, the others turn on you. If you sprint to the bunker, you'll be safe. But you're no longer welcome in the village. The reward is 25,000 RU, but since the task doesn't get offered until later in the game, it hardly seems worth it. Eventually, Nimble ventures out and I usually find his corpse near the trailer where you saved Tolik at the start of the game. I once saw him get killed by a cat. When I searched him, he had no weapon.

Find the perfected pistol

This is one of the I need a job. Do you have something for me? task that I like to call, Go fetch because that's basically what it entails. Go to the bridge, kill everyone, loot the target's body to get the pistol, and go back for your reward. I like to approach the bridge along the fence near the tracks. Toss a couple of grenades and finish the survivors off with your favorite shooter.

Find RPG-7

Your PDA may show that this item is located near the crashed helicopter in Wild Territory and you can pick it up when you save Kruglov from Wolfhound. However, if you happen to have one already, you can give it to Sidorovich to complete the task.

Find the set of artifacts

Ask Sidorovich if he has any interesting work and he gives you a list of "dummy" artifacts that you can collect while you move about the Zone. Here is the list and where I usually find them:

• Mama's Beads - This is fairly easy to find. Just as you spawn in Dark Valley near a boulder to the right. Inside the Agroprom train tunnel. In the Thompson's habar stash in Yantar.
• Pellicle - Wild Territory underpass where Hunter's rifle is. The artifact is along the same wall as the rifle and Freeman's body and is surrounded by Electro anomalies. From the north entrance, jump over the Goatling and go in the direction of Freeman. Use the truck cab to get on top of the long shipping container and drop down to get the artifact. To get out, jump on the ledge of the pillar and then to the top of the shipping container.
• Battery - South of the Garbage transition point to Dark Valley, the north end of the Agroprom swamp, and the Cache of Expedition-1 stash in Yantar.
• Spring - At the top of the stairs of the rusty metal grain elevator in a metal box, and at the top of the stairs inside the Bloodsucker Village water tower of Army Warehouses.
• Shell - Garbage pile north of the hanger, north edge of Army Warehouses directly north of the farmstead, and Cache of Expedition-1 stash in Yantar.

Most of these artifacts are found in stashes, so you probably don't need me to tell you how important it is to loot every corpse, even if you know another stalker has beat you to it. When you get the artifacts on the list, take them to Sidorovich and he gives you a SERAFIM suit.

Cover the Duty detachment from the attack of the bandits in the Dark Valley

This might be hard to understand what needs to be done, but it basically consists of stopping the Bandits from attacking the Duty squad. This is done by going back to their base and killing the Bandits as they come out of the front gate. There are a few vantage points to do this from, but you have to go to the front of the base. If you try to go in the back again as you did to get Borov's key, you'll make it harder on yourself to know which Bandits need to be taken out. If one gets away, you won't complete the task.

I prefer to use the small building in the southwest corner of the gas station. It's good cover from grenades, but you have to keep checking the east side of the wall (where the large tanks are) for Bandits coming at you that way. You don't have to kill all the Bandits in the base, just the ones that come out of the front gate. You get a task update when they're all down and can go back to Sidorovich for your reward.

Get Wolf the dynamite

This task can be combined with The deal with the military and Help your fellow rookies since they all send you to the same general location. First, get the artifacts from Wolf, and complete helping the fellow rookies until you get the Inspect the tunnel task.

Ask Wolf why he's so serious and he tells you about a box of dynamite that he needs for an order. Tell him you'll find the box, then head northeast toward the derailed locomotive. The box is in the cab and accessible from the southeast (opposite the tracks). While you're there, loop around either end of the locomotive (avoiding the anomalies) and approach from the northeast. Jump up to the rail and then to the top to find a stash. Take the dynamite back to Wolf and collect your reward.

Bring a bottle of vodka to Tolik

When you save Tolik by giving him a medkit after he and his friends get shot by a military helicopter, he goes back to the Rookie Village and keeps his promise to tell everyone what a great guy you are. Not only can you now go into the village, but you can find Tolik sleeping in the ruins of the house at the northwest corner of the village. He's probably the only green dot on your HUD at this point in the game. Ask him why he's upset and he explains that he's having withdrawn symptoms and needs a bottle of vodka. Agree and give him one to get the location of a crossbow. This will be useful if you plan to complete the Bring crossbow to Plichko task.

To get the crossbow in Wild Territory:

1. Coming from Rostok, continue west to the covered walkway that held Wolfhound's snipers and find the bush on the left (south) end.
2. Walk between the bush and the fence to be transported to the other side.
3. Continue west to the alley on the left with a truck at the end.
4. Across (southeast) from the truck, find the crossbow and arrows on the ground.
5. To leave, go back to the open area and to the ladder in the northeast corner that leads to a platform.
6. Up the ladder, turn around (west) and jump to the garage roof.
7. Drop down to the truck cab and then to the ground.

Take Fox's docs to Sidorovich

Save Fox and he tells you of a briefcase full of papers he wants you to get and give to Sidorovich. The briefcase is near the southeast corner of the Military Checkpoint. You may want to wait until Sidorovich gives you the Steal the box from the army outpost task. From the Rookie Village, go east until you reach the fence. Turn right (south) and follow the fence until you reach the mine field. Avoiding the white stakes, make your way to the fallen tree and use the tree to get over the fence. Now turn southwest and go to the eastern wall of the checkpoint. Find the large crate and rusted truck cab, and move along them to avoid the anomaly. The briefcase in the bush next to the truck cab. Pick it up and take it back to Sidorovich to get your reward.

At this point, Sidorovich offers the Find the set of artifacts task.

Old man's daughter

Inside the house where the Humpback is parked in the Rookie Village is an old man looking out the front window, Prokhor. Talk to him to hear his account of the accident and about his daughter. You won't be able to go any further with this mission until you reach Pripyat.

When you get to Pripyat, there's a marker on the west side of the map. I like to wait until I reach the hotel room, then go out the window onto the roof and sprint for cover from the RPGer to the north. Take him out and use the roof of the covered walk to get to the building west of the hotel. Work your way west to the apartment building and go to the south end of the building to find the stairs. Follow the hallway around and up the stairs to the top floor. Go right and follow the hallway on the right to find a doll and a diary. The task updates to Talk to the old man, which means you have to go back to Cordon. But don't make a special trip as you may be going back as part of the Total recall task.

In Cordon, talk to the old man to learn what may have happened to the girl and complete the task. A message displays telling you that you can now sleep in the rain and the Zone will protect you.

Help your fellow rookies

This task can be combined with The deal with the military and Get Wolf the dynamite since they all send you to the same general location. First, get the artifacts from Wolf, and ask Wolf why he's serious to get the task.

This is actually a series of task and covers three maps. The first task starts when you talk to Vasya Schukin in the house on the west end of the Rookie Village. He asks you to help him and his brother, Petya, retrieve something, but won't tell you what. Follow Vasya south over the hill to the refrigerator and talk to him again. Then, step back. When Vasya opens the door, he's blown up. Pretty soon another stalker comes over the hill named Troll, who explains that he booby-trapped the refrigerator. After the conversation with Troll, go back to Petya and ask if he's alright. Agree to escort him back to the house. This gives you the Protect the youngest of the brothers task.

Follow Petya back to the house. When Troll shows up, blow him away, which you can't do until he hits Petya at least once. But don't let Troll kill him or you'll fail the task. With Troll down, talk to Petya again and he tells you of a possible artifact in the train tunnel to the northeast. This gives you the Inspect the tunnel task. Go to the right side of the train cars, staying against the fence to avoid radiation, to see colored lights bouncing around. Go over and pick up the Cheburashka (Russian for teddy bear). As you walk away from the tunnel, you get a message to look in your backpack. Open your backpack and double-click on the Cheburashka. Be careful how you click through the conversation or you may fail the task. First, click Hi, and when the next choice displays, click Who is he?. Agree to help the bear find its owner, Kolya, and this gives you the Find the stalker task. The next step is to go to the Bar and find a stalker named Tail, who might be able to tell you where Kolya is. See Bar Tasks and Dead City Tasks for the rest of the task.

The Mystery of Old House

You get this task from Musician in the Rookie Village after you give him vodka and ask him what he's looking for. The Cherburashka gives you hints to look on the roof, tree, car, and electrical thing for four parts:

1. Skull - Go to the truck that has crashed into the fence on the east side of the yard. Look just behind the cab and above the fuel tank on the driver's side to get the "Search the box" message.
2. Leg - Climb on top of the truck's cab and use the tree to get to the roof. Look in the chimney to get the "Search the box" message.
3. Hand - Use the truck once more to get on top of the fence and walk north to the utility box. Look at the top section to get the "Search the box" message.
4. Rib cage - Go to the tree in the southwest corner of the yard. From the west side, jump up to the first limb. Walk up a little and jump back to the southwest onto the next limb. Turn back toward the house and look toward the trunk of the tree to get the "Search the box" message.

   Report back to Musician to complete the task. This spawns a Pyrogeist that exits the house and flies through the village until someone kills it.

Find the artifact for the wounded stalker

Ask Wolf about the situation around the camp and he tells you of an injured Loner. Go to the western root cellar and talk to Healer, who eventually tells you the Loner needs a Meat Chunk artifact. Accept the task and get the Find the artifact for the wounded stalker task. Give Healer the artifact and he works on the Loner, then steps back. Go talk to the Loner and he gives you the Find Veteran's cache task, which is marked on your PDA, and then he dies. When you get to the cache location, you meet Healer again. He bargains with you and offers you the cache contents in exchange for an artifact. This gives you the Find the "Stone Flower" artifact for Healer task. Give Healer the artifact and he tells you of a tablet that he threw on top of the barn. The easiest way to get onto the roof is to part a vehicle near one of the lower sections and jump from the top of the vehicle to the roof. You can use the truck that's there, but you'll pick up some radiation (not enough to spoil any food in your inventory). The tablet is located on top of the south wall of the larger section where there's a hole in the roof. Pick up the tablet and double-click it in your inventory to read it. When you finish reading, you get the following task series:

1. Get the first part of the map including Safe of Digger, Digger's weapon, A Strange Anomaly, and Anomal engine. You can start this on your way back through Cordon to Garbage.
2. Get the second part of the map including The Anomaly in the Tower, Meet Oneeyed, Take Oneeyed's flash from the band's stash, Retrieve your stuff, Kill bandit Kaligula. You need the crossbow in Wild Territory before you can start this task.
3. Get the third part of the map including Dangerous Science: Find the group, Dangerous Science: Get a map, and Dangerous Science: Inspect the signal source.
4. Get the forth part of the map including Flea's Hideout, Ferret out information from the prisoner, The struggle at the Sawmill, Talk to Zaharich, and Flying Islands.
5. Get the fifth part of the map

Get the first part of the map

Safe of Digger

Go see Yura the Digger in the farm house where you meet Fox. He asks you to open the safe before he will give you the flash drive. Cheburashka's hint is a cryptic way of saying that the combination consists of numbers associated with the letters on the front of the safe. You won't see the letters until you press the action key (F). Still not getting it? Press the Esc key and look for four numbers associate with O.G.S.E. No? Okay, I'll tell you: 0693. Open the safe, take the book, and offer it to Yura. Yura tells you that Vaska Podaypatron has it and is located near the Duty checkpoint in Garbage and you get the Meet Vaska Podaypatron task. Ask Yura how's life in general and you get the Digger's weapon task.

Digger's weapon

Yura gives you his broken RP-74, which adds 7 kg to your inventory and you can't use it, stash it, or sell it. You must carry it until you get to the Bar. You find Bruise just inside the Arena door. Talk to him and he asks you for another drink. However, if you give it to him, he falls asleep, you have to wait for him to wake up, and there's a chance that Digger won't talk to you when you take the weapon back (i.e., it breaks the task). Instead, tell him, "No drink..." and he fixes the RP-74, stating that he forgot something.

Take the gun back to Yura who tells you it still isn't right and sends you back to Bruise. Again, Bruise claims he forgot something and claims the gun is now ready. Once more, Yura isn't happy and sends you back to Bruise. This time, Bruise swaps Yura's gun for another. This time, you get back to Yura just in time for him to get killed by a Bandit and the task fails. It is possible to save Yura, but that breaks the quest. Get Yura's PDA and open it to download into your PDA. Then go to Diary > Log > Found PDA to see a record of an engine Yura found. This is a continuation of the task, although it doesn't appear on your Task list. However, there is a spot marked on the Agroprom map that says, "Anomal engine".

A Strange Anomaly

The Safe of Digger task sends you to Garbage, where you find Vaska at the Flea Market. When you approach him, he goes through some antics before you can talk to him. He then explains that he is trying to get the artifact out of a Bubble anomaly. Accept the challenge to get the Strange Anomaly task. Approach the artifact to be teleported back out. This triggers the Cherburashka to offer a hint. Also, the area is now surrounded by portals. The Cherburashka tells you to find the right sequence of four portals. The trick is to try them all and listen for the one that makes a different sound than the rest. Once you find the first one, repeat the process to find the rest in sequence. In other words, go through the first portal that makes a different sound, then try another portal. If it makes the same sound as the others, go back to the first portal, and then try another. Each attempt must start with the first portal and progress through the sequence until you have all four.

Note that there may be one or two portals that require you to climb up onto debris or the sculpture where Vaska is sitting, and jump through. Also, if you wind up on the roof, walk off the north edge and into the shelter where the artifact is. Give the artifact to Vaska and he gives you the flash drive to complete the Get the first part of the map.

Anomal engine

This task does not appear on the PDA Task list, but is marked on the Agroprom map when you complete the Digger's weapon task. The engine is located in the Agroprom Underground in the first room at the bottom of the stairs. There are actually two engines, but one has been disconnected from the fan. From the spiral stairs, go through the hallway and into the room. Continue south until you reach the last pillar in the center of the room and turn right to see the engine. To give it more power, as Digger's PDA suggests, use any one of the Electro artifacts: Sparkler, Flash, or Moonlight. Oddly, Battery artifacts don't work. Do not take the artifact directly off your belt, but instead, take it from your backpack and put it in the second weapon spot. Position yourself anywhere near the engine and deploy the artifact. When the artifact becomes an Electro anomaly, several artifacts fall out of an opening in the duct work overhead. Be sure to check that none of the artifacts get stuck on the wires running along the wall. The types of artifacts seem to be random, so it's a good idea to save before deploying the Electro artifact in case you can't use the ones you get on the first try.

Get the second part of the map

The Anomaly in the Tower

The Get the second part of the map task requires you to talk with Petrenko, and the only way to get to him is to complete the Bring crossbow to Plichko task.

As you leave the building after speaking to Petrenko, a Bandit calls to you and asks for a conversation. Agree, follow him as he moves away from the doorway, talk to him, and he eventually tells you where you can meet One-eyed. This gives you the Meet Oneeyed task. As you go north on the road leading to Army Warehouses, a dead body appears on your HUD on the right. This is One-eyed, or what's left of him. As you approach the body, a Bandit calls out, which means get behind the tree for cover. Three Bandits ambush you from the west side of the road. Take them out and loot them to find a PDA. The PDA tells you that the flash drive is in a stash behind the Bar. This gives you the Take Oneeyed's flash from the band's stash task the area is marked on your map.

Take the road south to the dump truck and examine the stash box in the bed. Also, notice the messages coming from the Duty checkpoint. When you take the flash drive, you get knocked out and wake up in a cell with all your equipment gone. A Duty officer named Major Jivoderov questions you and decides not to execute you for being a thief because he has a hangover. Instead, he releases you without your stuff and gives you five hours to leave the area. You spawn on the road leading south to Garbage with the Retrieve your stuff task. For this, you must talk with Voronin, who gives you the Kill bandit Kaligula task.

The Kill bandit Kaligula task requires you to pick a fight with Kaligula, who is drinking at the Bar. He challenges you to a fight in the Arena with the weapon of your choice. Kaligula drops an artifact when you kill him. Pick it up and report back to Voronin, who offers to buy it from you. If you play hardball, he ups the offer, or keep it.

Voronin tells you that the major is gotten into trouble in the water tower and sends you to help him.

1. Go into the water tower (with some Kefir if you have it), up the stairs, and find Jivoderov on his knees overcome by a mysterious sound.
2. When you exit the tower, a Stalker named Tykar waves you down and tells you how to turn the device off that is making the sound and gives you a bottle of extra-strength moonshine. The Cheburashka can also tell you how to do it.
3. Go to the opposite (south) side of the Arena building and use the ladders to get to the roof.
4. Cross the roof and take the right ramp to the catwalk.
5. Go into the tower and left around to the device sitting on a circular window ledge.
6. Use the moonshine.
7. Access the device, which already has the top button pushed.
8. Click each button going down, and then click the bottom-right button.
9. Repeat the sequence to turn off the device.
10. Talk to Jivoderov on the stairs and then following him out of the tower.
11. Talk to Jivoderov again once you're outside the tower and he gives you your stuff back, including the No. 2 flash drive.

Get the third part of the map

Get your reading glasses on for this one, there's a lot of dialog. The first part of the task is to find Radioman in Yantar. Instead, you find Private Epifahtsev in the bunker. If, at any time, any of your conversations with Private Epifahtsev is interrupted by a Zombie or Snork, you can start over after dispatching the intruder. Epifahtsev tells you that Radioman is missing and agrees to take you to the spot, giving you the Dangerous Science: Find the group. He takes you up the hill north of the bunker near an anomaly that the group was studying. When he stops, talk to him again and he begins to search the area, starting from the anomaly going west along the south wall of the factory complex. When he get near the garages, the private stops and picks something up off the ground. Talk to him again and he tells you it's a coded note from the missing group. Then he states that he needs the commander's map, giving you the Dangerous Science: Get a map task. Go back to the bunker and look for the commander's diplomatic case so you can open his stash box. The case is under the west ramp of the shelter with the Goatling, located at the south end of the bunker complex. Look on the south side of the ramp near the spot where the ramp meets the shelter. Open the case to get the key, and then go into the bunker and examine the stash box across from Sakharov. Take the map and go back up the hill to find the private, again.

Ask Private Epifahtsev what brought him to the Zone, and then tell him you brought him something. He takes the map, declares that the group is still alive, and tells you to follow him. He runs west along the ridge of the hill, stops, and takes out some binoculars. When he puts them down, talk to him and he gives you the Dangerous Science: Inspect the signal source task. Go down the hill to the smoke pillar. When you get there, lights start dancing around you, and then a soldier appears. He may get up and punches you so that you drop your weapon. Talk to him to learn the group is in a place called Wonderland and needs a prototype. Notice that his name is also Private Epifahtsev. When you offer him a med kit, Epifahtsev (the first) shoots him. Go back up the hill and ask him why he shot the survivor, the conversation breaks down, and he runs off. Follow him until he gets to the northeast area of the map, where he stops.

Talk to Private Epifahtsev again and he tells you the whole story about what happened to the missing group. He also tells you that Radioman has a backup prototype generator in a stash back at Rostok. You now have the Dangerous Science: Final accord task. During the last conversation with Epifahtsev, he mentions that the stash with the prototype is in Rostok near the trains, which is actually Wild Territory. Your map shows three general locations along the railroad tracks. You have to search for a backpack that's not a known stash, i.e., not a vanilla-game stash. Most commonly, on the southeast underground ramp near the Secret stash in the pipe is located, or on the ground between the railway wagons and northwest platform. Also, in the southwest section inside the little shack that is outside the train hanger door where you can go up a ramp to the top of a train car. These are the only locations I know of.

The prototype only works with a Veles detector, and only needs to be in your inventory. However, I wasn't able to find a Veles until after Dead City and had to come back to this later. Keep this in mind when you get the BTR running as you may need it for the Klondike of artifacts: last spurt task.

As Radioman's instructions state, using the prototype at the wrong frequency will ruin your equipment. So stash your guns and suit first (it doesn't affect food, nightvision, etc.). These are the Dark Zones I've found beside the one in Yantar:

• Wild Territory - between the construction site and underground ramp.
• Garbage - on the east side of the map directly east of the hanger. If you have completed Sidorovich's Eliminate two bandits at the Garbage task, you should know where it is.
• Dark Valley - behind (east) the gas station.
• Cordon - east by southeast of the Rookie Village.
• Army Warehouses - along the road that runs through Bloodsucker Village.

To use the prototype, pull out your Veles, press K on your keyboard, and walk toward the anomaly until you hear a strange sound. Scan through the frequencies using the greater than (>) key, followed by the Enter key, until the scanner beeps, letting you know that you're at the correct frequency. You either see a message telling you an artifact is detected, or the anomaly is recharging. If it's recharging, move on to the next Dark Zone. You may have to come back to this one later. If an artifact is detected, look around for it. If it disappears before your grab it, try the Enter key again. The artifact usually appears in the same spot.

Once you have all three artifacts, go back to Private Epifahtsev, talk to him, and he takes the artifacts to work on the generator, which suddenly spawns right next to him. He says the work will take some time, but it only takes him a few seconds. The generator weighs 10 kg, so be sure you can take that much. Pick it up and stand at the edge of the anomaly, but not in it (remember that it damages your equipment). Ask Epifahtsev if you're in the right spot and he tells you to set it down there. When you drop the generator from your inventory, you black out, and then come to. Pick up the pipe on the ground in front of you.

There are two possible outcomes: let the private (who is really Radioman) destroy the generator, or, use the pipe to stop him (your primary and secondary weapons have moved to your backpack. If he destroys the generator, the group is lost forever. If you stop him, the group spawns and the captain arrests the private. Either way, you get the No. 3 flash drive.

Get the forth part of the map

Flea's Hideout

This task is only activated by completing the Find the artifact for the wounded stalker task. As you approach the Darkscape Sawmill, you get a radio transmission about Bandits and a task update, Meet with the Searchers in the Darkscape. Go into the east building and talk to Simply Yuri, who is sitting on a ledge along the west wall, and ask him what's going on. You have the following conversation options:

• Interesting. Why don't you just release the captive and leave? Agree to help question the Bandit and go talk to Flea and get the Ferret out information from the prisoner task. You have to go back to Simply Yuri and return to Flea in order to get a hint from the Cheburashka. The backpack is under the bush near the southeast corner of the Sawmill. Read the note to learn of Proffessor's plan to double-cross his boss, the possible location of the forth part of the map flash drive, and the Talk to Zaharich task. Then go talk to Proffessor in the west building (ignore the Bandit's warning). Proffessor agrees to leave and the task is complete. You can go talk to Simply Yuri and get a reward if you want.
• If we run now, we will run again and again. We must wipe this scum out. Yuri's not so sure he likes the idea. If you press him to kill the Bandits, he orders his men to attack. If you agree to think about it, the conversation is over. Either way, you don't get the information you need from Flea about the flash drive.
• I don't even know how to help you. Let me scout out how many we are dealing with here. You get a hint from the Cheburashka, but can't access The struggle at the Sawmill until you talk to Proffessor, the Bandit leader. The hint is not to trust bad people, and with good reason. If you convince Yuri to let the captive Flea go, Proffessor attacks the Stalkers, just like Yuri warned you they would. Again, no matter who wins, you don't get the information from Flea.

Talk to Zaharich

Zaharich's house is east of the Sawmill. Ask if anyone has been there to see him to start a long conversation. Finally, Zaharich gives you a book about the Black Stalker that you have to read. You can just click through it to the end to get Zaharich's instructions, which are to go to the hill southwest of your location, only he means, "southeast" (it's marked on your map).

When you get there, the Black Stalker is waiting. He tells you to protect him and the dog as they lead you to the Light artifact. At one point, the dog stops. Ask Black Stalker what's going on and he tells you the dog picked up a scent. Then the dog starts off again. The next time the dog stops, it's an ambush by two or three Bandits. There are four ambushes in all and if the dog dies, you die. So be sure to quick save and reload your weapon after each ambush. Also, stay with Black Stalker and wait to loot the dead Bandits until later when you return to the Flying Islands.

At the last ambush, Black Stalker runs north to a glowing grave marker. Follow him until he stops and talk to him. Wait while he goes in to get the Light artifact and talk to him again. Then follow him to Zaharich's and talk to him once more to complete the task and move on to Flying Islands.

Flying Islands

With the Light artifact in your inventory, go west to the area marked "Death zone" and walk under the central island with the building on it. There is a portal that takes you to the island south of the building. Jump to the portal directly north (on the south side of the building) and be sent to a boulder cluster and the Cheburashka offers a hint to look for the portal that takes you inside.

Now try again, only jump to the building's west side and try to find the portal that takes you inside the building. Or, jump to the island north of the building that has two portals with one at the top of a dead and try that one. Once inside, get the flash drive off of Chatterbox to complete the task. The portals are gone, but walking off the island causes no damage. As far as I know, both artifacts are only good for selling.

Get the fifth part of the map

The first step is to find Owl somewhere in the Army Warehouses. Go to Lukash and ask about him to learn that Owl is with the Prisoners at the Radar group. Offer to look for the group, and refer to that task for the walkthrough. After taking out the Supercontroller, the group leader gives you the flash drive to complete the mission. You now have the Klondike of artifacts: last spurt task and a marker on the southeast side of the Red Forest map indicating a stash with a key.

The Trap at the Gas Station

You don't need any weapons for this task and, if you want all that's in the stash, you need to be able to take on about 34 kg. As you approach the Darkscape Gas Station, the Cheburashka tells you to remember the dispenser numbers. Two of the pumps have numbers over them. Use these numbers (in sequence) to open the safe by clicking each number, and then click the lever below the dial. Talk to Jekan and then open the safe. Put the artifact on your belt to be transported outside. Take notice that this destroys the artifact. This completes the task and you now have the Find the secret bunker task.

Find Strelok's group's stash

There's a few surprises in Agroprom. First, after you save Mole from the military and follow him to the underground entrance, you'll find that the entrance is blocked. Go northeast and follow the wall around (on the outside) until you get to a broken-out panel. Go through the opening and into the center of the four large tanks (Hermit's place in Clear Sky). Consider sprinting out to the trailer in the swamp before entering the underground and get the Help the deserter task. You can get both sets of documents at once.

Next, when you get to Strelok's hideout, the flash drive is in a different spot, but near the original place. And a bloodsucker spawns when you pick the flash drive up.

Third, on your way to the underground exit into the Agroprom Research Institute, there are two Controllers that spawn instead of one Burer. Put a land mine near the doorway as you make your way down the passageway toward the manhole into the complex.

Finally, if you're like me and prefer to complete the Find the militaries' documents task without killing everyone in the camp, you may find that there are more guards than the vanilla version, and they walk different routes. However, I have had games where this is not the case, but then I've rewritten this next walkthrough several times as guard movements seem to change with every game. You may only be able to get to the third floor without firing a shot. But there are possibly two guards in the hallway of the third floor and I haven't figured out a way to get past them unnoticed. Also, if you emerge from the underground during daylight hours, you're not going to get very far. It's best to double-back and find something to do until at least 18:00. Some guards are still moving around the front of the building until 23:00, and if you finish the mission before 20:00, they call in a helicopter gunship to make your escape even more challenging, so later is better. The best time to start this task is at, or after midnight. Also, you can use a silenced weapon, such as an AS VAL, without setting the alarm off. But you must get a clean headshot.

Here's my walkthrough:

1. From the manhole out of the underground, quickly walk (don't sprint) south to the closes Quonset hut, then east to the other one and wait for two guards to pass. There's one guard that sometimes comes between the Quonset huts and if you're anywhere but at the north end of the east building, he'll see you.
2. Low-crouch west to the road that leads to the main building, then south to the first shipping container and save. If you don't low-crouch the timing will be off and a guard coming out of the main building will see you.
3. Low-crouch south along the west side of the container and continue west between the buildings.
4. Low-crouch south between the buildings staying along the east building until you pass the first shipping container, then to the west building and into the doorway at the south end. If you're attempting this before 23:00 and plan on collecting anomalous bolts, this is a good time to grab the one in this building. After 23:00 you'll encounter two guards in the room with the bolt and you may have to pass on it for now (you can complete the task without it).
5. Save again and (before 23:00) wait for the guard to come from the south end of the building, past the doorway, and head for the front gate. After 23:00, don't wait.
6. Low-crouch south to the fence around the storage tanks, then east until you get to the far curb.
7. Turn west and back up until you can just see which way the guard in the southwest tower is facing as he turns in a circle from left to right. You may want to take a step forward to be sure you're hidden by the tank.
8. When he turns north, crouch along the south wall of the main building and follow the wall to the left so that you're out of sight from the tower and save.
9. Low-crouch along the south wall and go right up on top of the spool. But then you have to jump (still in a low-crouch) up on the window ledge. Strange, because the ledge is a shorter distance. Anyway, before 23:00, wait for the guard in the front hallway to move west past the opening into the hallway. After 23:00, don't wait (there's no guard in the front hallway). Move west along the ledge to the open window with no frame as it's just a big enough opening to get through.
10. Low-crouch into the front hall, and into one of the stairwells. I've had games where there was a guard on the east stairs, and other games where he was on the west stairs. The stairwell on the first floor is a safe spot to save. If one side doesn't work, try the other.
11. Now low-crouch up the stairs to the landing and up three steps. Stand straight up to see if the guard is visible. If not, crouch the rest of the way up and continue to the next landing before the third floor.
12. This is as far as I get without shooting. If your timing is right, you can eliminate the guards with a single grenade, grab the box, and get back to the roof using the east stairs. It's about this time that Mole contacts you with the Find out what help Mole needs task. Also, if you're collecting Records, there's one on the east shelving unit in the room with the box. Then, down the ladder, out the back fence, and over the hill.

Before you leave Agroprom, you may want to see Mole. For a walkthrough of the vanilla game, see my Lost Alpha walkthrough.

Help the deserter

I find this is much easier to do in combination of the Find the militaries' documents task, or after helping Prokhorov get to Cordon at the end of the Owner of the Dead City task. The task starts with the deserted soldier hiding in the swamp. Talk to him and offer to help him get to Sidorovich. First, you must leave him to find some clothing so he can change out of his uniform. A leather jacket, sunrise suit, or tourist suit works. I haven't tested all of them, but you get an update when you acquire the right outfit. You get a new sunrise suit when you find Strelok's hideout. However, the deserter won't take it until you come back with the document about the transition point to the Cordon. This is in the blue stash box on the third floor of the Agroprom Research Institute. You must open the document to get the task update.

With the document and clothing, go back to the deserter and tell him you have everything. Now head southeast to the new transition point, which takes you to the Marshes (a.k.a., Great Swamp). You can use a vehicle or go on foot. The transition point to Cordon is directly south of where you spawn. Here, you spawn on the north side of the tracks. If you waited until after helping Prokhorov, you can just drive under the bridge and down the road to the Rookie Village. Otherwise, you have to loop around the military to the east and cross the tracks where the radiation is high. Hopefully, you don't kill your passenger if you go that way (assuming you're driving). But any food you have may get spoiled unless it's in the trunk.

Go straight to Sidorovich's bunker and tell him the situation with the deserter. He agrees to let the guy stay, but you have to tell the deserter before the task is complete. Ask Sidorovich if he has any personal errands and he gives you the Guest at the elevator task.

Find out what help Mole needs

At some point during your time in Agroprom, usually while stealing the military's documents, Mole radios you to come see him. He's held up in the factory complex and may still be fighting the military. When you ask him what he needs help with, he tells you about a box of ammo he needs you to get for him in the Garbage Underground. I suggest completing this before moving on to the Bar, just to get it out of the way. You can also wait until the Resolve the situation with the prisoner at the Agroprom task and pick up the boxes on your way from the Bar.

There are actually four boxes of ammo, each weighing 18 kg. So, strip down to your undies. Or, wait until you get the UAZ 469 (Goatling) with enough capacity to hold all three boxes. This vehicle is located along the right side of the road just after the Garbage transition point to Bar.

Starting from the garage south of the depot, go down the ladder that's just inside the door and check the shelves behind you. Then, turn east and then take the passage going north. There are usually three boxes in the underground that are placed in different locations, but sometimes only two.

On the left is a little alcove with green shelves. Check the bottom shelf. Continue north and check the bin on the right just before the two stacked truck tires. Next, continue down to the end of the passage and check on the right of the control panels. Go back towards the tires to the intersection and take that passage west. Check the top of the three large wooden crates on the right. Continue on a few steps and check the crates on the left.

The remaining box or boxes are at the east end of the garbage heap on the east side of the road. You're going to take on some radiation, so bring some anti-rads, vitamin E, or artifacts of at least -50 radiation, -60 is recommended. The south side of the heap is curved in with a group of bushes at the southeast corner. Use that as a starting point to go north up to the top and find the white structure with a ladder going into a hole. Climb down the ladder and take your first anti-rad when you reach the first platform. Check for a box at the bottom of the hole on the southwest corner of the structure you just climbed down. There's a tunnel off the shaft to the east with a small room containing food and a record. Check in the northeast corner.

Take the ammo back to Mole and ask him to take the ammo. After he takes the last box, ask him what he'll give you out of the boxes and he offers you your choice as a reward.

Barkeep Optional Missions

Bartender friend

Ask Barkeep if he has any personal errands for you and he gives you this task as one of the options. This task takes you to the Dark Valley, so it's best to ask Barkeep for it before going on the X18 mission. Go to the bandit camp first where you'll see two corpses below the west tower. Take the sniper in the tower out and then go find Shvid's PDA next to the two corpses. This tells you that Barkeep's friend is being held in a trailer, which is north of the factory. You can go up to the trailer, even inside. If you do go inside, you may notice that one hostage is hostile and you might need to put him down if he comes at you.

It's best to find a good shooting spot. I prefer the retaining wall northwest of the trailer so the kidnappers are lined up for shooting. Another option is to clear out the Bandits in the factory and go to the northeast corner of the roof to snipe them. Once you start firing, a timer starts at 1:29. This is how long you have to stay alive and keep Barkeep's friend alive, too. Unfortunately, he comes out of the trailer and often gets killed. Often, one well-placed F1 grenade is all it takes, as close to the cement slabs as possible. Too close to the trailer rigged with explosives and you kill the prisoners. Once Shvid is free, go talk to him and you can get your reward from Barkeep next time you're at the Bar. Now go on to X-18.

Resolve the situation with the prisoner at the Agroprom

A very important stalker is being held by the military in Agroprom and you have to free him before the military finds out who he is. I've never tried this without a car, so I don't know if there's enough time to sprint from one side of Agroprom to the other. That would take a few energy drinks. Also, I like to use a shotgun with slugs, a sniper rifle for the guards in the towers, and a few grenades.

When you get to Agroprom, Barkeep radios you that a transport heli is on the way and you only have six minutes to get the stalker. This starts a timer at 6:00. Follow the road until you get to the truck in the road and turn left going just past the van. Pass the fallen tree to the left (east) and turn right to stay parallel with the fence. As you come over the hill, you'll see where another fence starts. Stay just to the right of it (so you're between the two fences) and go up to the top of the hill so you're south of the Agroprom Research Institute. Stop the car and take care of any mutants that may have followed you, then save. Take your sniper rifle and go north over the hill to the wall. Take out the guard in the west tower, then through the opening in the wall and toss a grenade toward the east gate. Keep it close to the building to set off a secondary explosion. Take out the guard in the east tower and sprint to the far-left window in back.

Switch to the shotgun and toss a grenade through the window so that it goes through the open door and lands in the hallway. After the grenade goes off, take one step back from the wall, crouch-jump to the window ledge, and low-crouch through the window. Toss another grenade into the hallway and get to the door, staying out of the blast field of the grenade. Check the hallway and outside the building, then sprint to the west stairs. Go up to the second floor and move carefully around the corner. Take out any guards in the hallway and the one guarding the stalker. Then, talk to the stalker and agree to lead him out.

The stalker does not follow until the hallway on the first floor is clear. When you get to the front door, don't be surprised by more soldiers spawning before your eyes as a helicopter flies over. When the way seems clear, tell the stalker to follow you and lead him out the front door and around back to the car. Get in the car and when you see the green indicator on your minimap, that means he's in the car with you (only you can't see him). Take him to Mole's group and talk to the stalker indicated on your minimap to complete the second part of the task. Then, go back to Barkeep for your reward.

Records

As Barkeep why there's no music and he asks you to keep an eye out for records. These are scattered around the Zone and can actually be found before taking the task. The only reward is listening to them when you bring them back to the Bar. If you look at the jukebox, there are nine slots to fill. Here is a list of record locations:

• Cordon - In the attic of the abandoned farmstead house (where you meet Fox). Climb the ladder to the attic, then go through the hole in the southwest corner of the roof. Go up to the peak and east to the flat roof, then drop down into the hole in the southeast corner of the roof. The record is on the floor along the south wall.
• Garbage - See the forth box in Find out what help Mole needs.
• Agroprom - On the third floor of the Institute building (military base), the east shelving unit.
• Dark Valley - Borov's couch.
• Darkscape - As you escape from Dark Valley, there's a group of four houses and one of them has neutral Bandits in it. First, go to the house on the other side of the road and to the east. Inside the front door is a pack of cigarettes. Pick them up and go talk to the bandit at the door. Tell him to let you in and he asks for a smoke. Give him the cigarettes, he eventually moves out of the way so you can enter. Go into the first room and to the far-right corner to find the record.
• Darkscape - Zaharich's desk. This one is a "maybe" in that I've had games when it was there and games when it was not. When it's there, the northern farm of Army Warehouses is not, and visa versa.
• Army Warehouses - Inside the refrigerator across the hall from Lukash in the Freedom base.
• Army Warehouses - If you didn't find one on Zaharich's desk, there's probably one in the original spot, which is on the north wall of the Farmstead in the north where you Deal with the snitch.
• Dead City - On the ground floor of the building where messenger is. Sometimes the poltergeist throws it around, so you may have to look for it. Otherwise, it's on the table with the telephone in the room off the front entry to the west.
• Pripyat - The building with the Monolith snipers just before you get to the car park. Go through the iron gate, into the front door, and continue east through the building. After you pass the open door and window on the right with the fire pit, turn right through the first door, then left and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, turn left (south), go through the next room and into the room with the piano and the record on top.

When you return to the Bar with one or more records, walk up to the jukebox and press action to load them. You can listen to them if you want.

Food delicatessen

This is pretty much the same as Sidorovich's Hunting trophies tasks where Barkeep asks you for mutant parts that are relatively easy to come by.

Bring crossbow to Plichko

When you first talk to Plichko, who guards the entrance to the Duty base at Rostok, and tell him you have valuable information for the commander, he offers this task. However, going to the Freedom base seems to be a waste of time because there's no way to get past the guy guarding the weapons. Talking to him doesn't work. I hit him with an RPG and didn't seem to hurt him, so you can't kill him. Unless you happen upon a crossbow in a stash, or completed the Bring a bottle of vodka to Tolik task, I'm afraid I can't help you with this one.

Voronin Optional Missions

Find the item - Enhanced Pistol

Go to the northwest corner of the map, take out the Mercs, and grab the pistol. Be aware that there is a trader in the southeast corner of the area and not part of the Merc group. Take the pistol back to Voronin for your reward.

Obtain a M202 from Freedom

For this task, you need three bottles of vodka and preferably one kefir. Go to the guard at the entrance to the Duty headquarters and tell him Barkeep sent you for a special mission. After you talk to the guard, go to the left through the gate in the red brick wall, and then right into the guarded doorway. Follow the passage until you come to a room and go to the left to talk to Voronin. He tells you he wants you to steal an M202 rocket launcher from Freedom and gives you the task.

Go to the Army Warehouses and to the Freedom base. After crossing the bridge, turn right (west) and go to the end of the road. On the right is a long building that has a guy inside sitting on the floor near a post. Go in and talk to him, asking every question until you get to the one about having a drink. After two drinks, ask him about the M202, but he won't tell you. Then have another drink and ask again. This time he tells you there are two in the village. Now it's time for a kefir and stagger toward the village.

Go to the house marked on your PDA. The M202 is in the basement, along with some VOG-25 ammo. Take the M202 back to Voronin to complete the task.

Protect the security post of the Duty

Open Petrenko's safe

The only way to get to Petrenko is to complete the Bring crossbow to Plichko task. This task takes you to the Freedom base in Army Warehouses.

Petrenko is located at the south end of the Duty base. Ask him if he's having any problems and he tells you that he lost the combination to his safe, and that the paper containing the combination is in a briefcase that was lost in the hanger outside the base.

1. At Plichko's checkpoint, turn left (south) and climb the tower ladder.
2. Turn right and follow the catwalk to another ladder to the top.
3. On the top platform, jump to the roof of the hanger, and then drop through the opening. The briefcase is located on the ground next to the northern-most pillar.
4. Pick it up and open it to find the combination to the safe. The gate at the north end of the hanger is blocked by two containers. However, the container next to the door can be pushed by walking into it.
5. Get on the west side and push the container east to clear the gate and get back to Petrenko's office.
6. Open the safe to complete the task and either take everything or leave it, it doesn't matter.
7. Tell Petrenko the safe is open and he gives you some cash. Ask him if he needs the briefcase and he gives you more cash.

Find the anomalous bolts

This task comes from Snitch in the Bar. He asks for bolts that have become anomalies and to bring them in lots of 20. If you bring them back one at a time, he only gives you 100 RUs each if trade with him to get it. This is the same amount as any trader offers. Using a Veles is the best way to find the bolts. But Sakharov doesn't offer one until after Lab X-16. If you turn in 20 or more to Snitch, he gives you the 30,000 RUs, plus 1500 RUs for any additional bolts.

Here's what I've found so far (it helps to use a detector):

1. Agroprom - Along the center of the swamp's east bank, inside a pipe. I never would have found it without the detector.
2. Agroprom - First floor bathroom of the east factory building where Mole is hiding from the military. Go up the stairs to the first door. Inside the door, turn right.
3. Agroprom - Roof of the north factory building. Either use the ladder to the roof on the north wall, or from inside, go through the skywalk to the north building, turn left, up the ladder to the roof.
4. Agroprom - West room of the west building in the research complex.
5. Dark Valley - Bandit base. In the center pit of the smaller garage that runs along the north side of the complex.
6. Dark Valley - Bandit base. From where you free the Dutyer, go up the stairs, out the window, and turn left (south).
7. Dark Valley - Bandit base. Where a Goating is parked under the ramp going into the larger garage.
8. Dark Valley - Northern building of the gas station in the northeast corner of the first floor next to a coal-burning heater.
9. Dark Valley - Lab X-18 complex. In the small enclosure east of the front gate.
10. Darkscape - Two along the road just east of the neutral Bandit's house.
11. Darkscape - Two in Zaharich's No. 17 stash.
12. Wild Territory - Under the shelter directly south of the helicopter crash.
13. Wild Territory - In the northwest corner of the map where there's a gate over the train tracks going east and west.
14. Wild Territory - In the northeast corner of the open area just before you get to the underpass full of Heat anomalies. When you're helping Kruglov get away from Wolfhound, this is where the last group of Mercs are waiting.
15. Wild Territory - In the southwest section there's a little shack outside the train hanger door where you can go up a ramp to the top of a train car. Inside the shack is a bolt.
16. Wild Territory - Southwest room inside the train station.
17. Army Warehouses - Northwest corner of the Freedom base, next to a brick transformer enclosure.
18. Dead City - West side of town on the south side of the main road is two single-story buildings with ramps. In the northeast corner of the north building.
19. Dead City - Northwest corner of the room where you meet the Owner of the Dead City. You must kill the mutant first.
20. Dead City - Directly west of the gym in the open field behind the garages on the road north of the gym.
21. Dead City - Inside the walled-in area of the gym in the northwest corner is a multi-vehicle garage. In the southwest corner.
22. Dead City - On the road north of the gym are some garages northeast of the gym complex. Between the second and third one from the east.
23. Dead City - North of the city on the east side is a boat and small dredging barge. East of the barge and among the bushes.

X-18 Documents

Unlike the vanilla game, X-18 has documents all through it. The first one you encounter is near the first locked door. Turn away from the door to face north and notice there are three doorways, plus a restroom and the stairwell. Take the second doorway on the right. Go through the room at a southeast direction and through the next door. Keep going until you find the hallway going north. On the right is a room with a Comet anomaly and a corpse in the far corner. Loot the corpse to get Part 5.

For the next document, continue down the hallway to get the code for the door, then take the hallway that goes west. Follow the hallway left past the large hole in the wall, then turn right and go into that next room. In the far-left corner is a stalker with Part 3. If you talk to him, he'll offer the document in exchange for 20,000 RUs or a Gold Fish artifact. Unless you have either already, it's easier just to kill him and take the document. However, he's pretty tough and it takes two-three grenades before he goes down. This should be a last resort. I've had games where he helps me leave the lab by going in front of me and killing the soldiers so I can just walk out.

Go through the locked door, down the stairs, and into the room with the elevator. Turn west and go down the hallway, then turn left into the next room. Turn left again into a room with three large shipping containers along the wall on the right (west). Turn north to go past the containers and down some steps into a room with a large device hanging from the ceiling. Near the northwest corner of the room is a light blue stash box with the Part 1 document.

Part 2 is in the dark green stash box in the room where you kill the Pseudogiant and get the code for the second door. In the southeast corner of the large room are some stairs going up to a small room with a table and refrigerator. The last document, Part 4, is in the control room where you get locked in with the Pyrogeist. Before you leave there, be sure to talk to the Dead Stalker for The question of immortality - Part 1 task.

There are usually three soldiers on the second floor of the building, and about seven more outside. Once you take them all out, you can help yourself to either Goatling just outside the gate. These are available throughout the remainder of the game, so if one gets damaged or runs out of fuel, you can always trade it in for the other. At some point (I'm not sure when) the Military leaves Dark Valley and you're free to return to the factory. Next, Get out of the Dark Valley.

The question of immortality - Part 1

In the final room of Lab X-18 where you get locked in with a Pyrogeist, there are six chambers along the south wall with one having been knocked over. There is also a neutral stalker indicated on the minimap. Go up to the chamber and talk to the Dead Stalker. After a lengthy conversation, he gives you the task of finding three special artifacts. If you have the Cheburashka from the Help your fellow rookies task, it claims that it can help you by giving you hints as to how to collect these artifacts.

Here are the hints and where I found the artifacts:

• Cobblestone:
  • Dead Stalker's Hint - Emits psi and strong radio distortion within a radius of 250 meters.
  • Cheburashka's Hint - Look around great Metallic structure. Like in Garbage.
  • Locating - Using a detector, check the tops of the garbage heaps. Usually, the one south of the hanger at the east end is where I find it.
• Firefly:
  • Dead Stalker's Hint - Only in an Electra anomaly and only while it's raining. The artifact causes the anomaly to continuously discharge and turn a pale green.
  • Cheburashka's Hint - Wander on water during a rain.
  • Locating - Most of the maps have a swamp, so you just need to find one with an Electro anomaly. If it's raining, even just a little, the presence of the Firefly will be obvious by the Dead Stalker's description. Walk through the anomaly and pick the artifact up as you go, don't stop. Having the right suit, like a UPSm Cist, is important. And a couple of Battery artifacts on your belt helps, but not required if you keep moving. It's a good idea to keep an eye out for Electro anomalies over open water so you know where to look when it rains, keeping in mind that anomalies move with each blowout. Also keep in mind that Dark Valley has two ponds, near the X-18 building and behind (west) the Bandit Base.
• Chameleon:
  • Hints - Only during blowouts, probably near your shelter.
  • Locating - Detectors work during a blowout, so keeping yours out while you shelter can be helpful. Sometimes they spawn right at the outer edge of the safe zone and you can just walk over and pick it up. Other times, it's out a little further and you have to take Bi-Psi-Zon before going out to get it. If you do, put your detector away so you don't drop it (lost my Veles once and didn't notice until another Stalker picked it up).

When you have all the artifacts, go back to X-18 (and take a Goldfish artifact with you). The lab has spawned a few mutants while you were away. Go to the Dead Stalker and tell him you've found everything he asked for to complete the task. You can either ask him if there's a second part of the request, or if the disorder in the lab has become worse. The second part of the request results in The question of immortality - Part 2. Asking about the lab results in the Little Giant task.

The question of immortality - Part 2

Accept this task and the Dead Stalker gives the artifacts back (with some added radiation) and asks you to take them up to the first floor and throw them into the Fruit Punch anomaly. Then, bring back what results.

At the top of the stairs, go through the first door on the right and keep right until you're at the anomaly, which is inside a square tub. Just stand near the anomaly to get the results (or maybe along the rim), you don't have to do anything until the new artifact appears, then pick it up (it may even appear in your inventory). Take the Black Soul artifact back to the Dead Stalker to complete the task. That's it, just some philosophical statement about having his fate in his own hands.

Little Giant

Assuming you've completed The question of immortality - Part 1, ask the Dead Stalker why the lab's disorder to get this task. Hopefully, you have a Goldfish artifact with you that you can deploy somewhere on the second floor of the lab to take Baby out. But I've used a Fireball, Moonlight, and Meat Chuck before. I also tried a Stone Flower and nothing happened. The trick is, where. If you didn't take my advice about deploying an artifact during your first X-18 visit, Poltergeists are throwing things around the lab and deploying the artifact doesn't always work out where you hoped it would. For this task, the best place I've found is in the hallway with the grated floor. Remember, you have to be able to report back to the Dead Stalker to complete the task, and get out of the lab. See X-18 Documents for instructions on deploying an artifact. If you have already deployed artifacts on this level, you can probably just wait for the task update telling you Baby is no more.

If you've never deployed an artifact before, it's best not to wait until Baby is coming at you. Instead, find a good spot where it's sure to walk through without trapping yourself. Hopefully, Baby will wonder by and fall into the anomaly. Report back to the Dead Stalker to complete the task. Dead Stalker tells you that the artifacts resulting in Baby's demise is your reward. You may have to shoot the artifacts out of the anomaly to collect them all safely.

Get out of the Dark Valley

When you leave Lab X-18, the military has left you two UAZ 469 Goatlings, one on either side of the front gate. Take one of them south to the gate and you end up in Darkscape. The task isn't complete until you get to the other side of Darkscape and move to Cordon, which is in keeping with the storyline of the vanilla version. When you get to Cordon and accept Sidorovich's invitation to stop by, he gives you the Steal the box from the army outpost task, which you're suppose to wait until after dark to perform. If that's the case, or if you just want to see what Darkscape has to offer, there's plenty to do to pass the time.

Zaharich

Zaharich is an old man that lives in Darkscape. His house is not on the map, but east of a large rock formation on the map. The easiest way to find him is to take the path that goes southwest of the sawmill full of Stalkers.

Riddles

After you get through Zaharich's life history, he asks you if you want to do some work. This involves him asking riddles and if you answer correctly, he gives you stash coordinates. If he says he can't remember the riddle he was about to ask you, just keep clicking Old man, ask the riddle until he does. Just be careful not to click too much. It seems that the more questions you answer, the worse his memory gets. If you get the answer wrong, you have to wait even longer before asking again. He may even cut you off at around 15 (out of 20 possible). I use this time to locate the stashes that he's given me. Sometimes he'll give you more after you clear out a few stashes. When you've answered all 20 riddles, he just repeats that he forgot the riddle.

Despite Zaharich's claim that he has marked the stashes on your PDA, they do not show up (at least, not for me). Instead, the stashes are listed in your PDA's Diary. Most just have the hint and one or two have an area circled on a map.

There are 20 stashes in all, but he may not give them all to you (in one playthrough he stopped at 16 despite several attempts). Here are the stashes I've found (with the help of Витёк ЗЗЗ's YouTube video), listed according to the riddle/answer. I've also added a number at the end to use as a guide for cleaning the stashes out starting from the Cordon transition point. Keep in mind that as you're collecting stashes that you will be returning to Darkscape during more tasks.

1. Cutting grass (8 stalkers) - The canopy is south of the building with the Bandits and the backpack is between two piles of logs at their ends. -11-
2. Cordon to Pripyat (After 6 days) - The west building of the sawmill is populated by Bandits, but they are neutral to you. Find the two tanks of differing heights. The backpack is on top of the taller tank. To get to it, stand on the empty spool to the east of the tanks and sprint-jump to the shorter tank. -10-
3. Peel potatoes (70 minutes) - Directly south of the sawmill, at the top of the hill, there are two evergreen bushes. This stash is located under the bush to the west. -7-
4. Eagle and Geese (36 geese) - I'm not sure parapet is the correct word, more like the retaining wall across the road from the old barn directly south of Zaharich's shack. The backpack is on top of the first pillar from the south (not counting the end pillar). -2-
5. How old are you? (66 years) - Coming from the Cordon transition point, the "pile of boulders" is on the north side of the first fallen tree on the left (north). The backpack is on the northeast side of the boulders. -1-
6. Flock of geese (3) - The large tunnel nearest the gas station has a ladder on the left (north facing) side that you can't see until you are almost under it. Look for the break in the ledge at the top. -5-
7. Crows (18, 10, 8) - Behind (west) the gas station near the southwest corner is a large tree with the backpack on the west side. -6-
8. Amoebas (59 minutes) - Go to the east side of the railroad bridge and up to the tunnel. There are two bloodsuckers in the tunnel that will not bother you unless provoked. On the north side of the tracks are stairs to get to the top of the bridge. Then, turn left (south) and you should see the backpack on the other side. -16-
9. Two pockets of roubles (5 and 7 roubles) - On the west side of the bridge going over the creek, there's a fallen tree to the north of the road. Go along the east side of the tree to find the backpack under the foliage. -18-
10. 2006 antirad tablets (503) - The abandoned farm is really the house with the neutral Bandits (remember Zaharich saying he was run off by Bandits). The backpack is on the roof of the outhouse. You have to jump up on top of the fence to get to it. This one contains five flamethrowers, so you may have to stash a few and come back for the rest. -20-
11. Cats and rats (3 minutes) - The backpack is on the back deck of the excavator. -4-
12. Dark Valley cats (8 cats) - Along the dirt road that has the rusted Lada where it meets the paved road, about halfway to the sawmill is a round boulder near the cliff face that, when you stand south of it, looks like a hippo. The backpack is on the northwest side. -14-
13. Wet cartridges - (18 rounds) - The only thing I can add to the description is that the backpack is under the foliage part of the tree. -3-
14. Skins (94 Pseudo dogs, 1 boars, 5 chimeras) - More like west by northwest. If you end up at the remains of a camp, you're too far north and can follow the cliffs west to a cross (if you did the Flying Islands task, you know where this is). The three rocks are about the size of a Goatling, but not as high and there's a cross beyond them up against the cliff wall. The backpack is in the middle of the three stones. -9-
15. 30 Bloodsuckers (9) - Under the brown evergreen tree north of the house along the fence. -8-
16. Keg of Beer (35 days) - Starting from the northeast corner of the fence to the sawmill's east building, go east up the hill to a large crotched tree. From the tree, continue east up the hill to a group of evergreen bushes, along with a small tree. The backpack is located on the southwest side of the brown bush's trunk. -13-
17. Glass of water (The stalker had the hiccups.) - Going north from the railroad bridge is a large boulder off the road on the right, another near the road, and then the two tall boulders side-by-side with a smaller one in front. The backpack is on the ground on the far side from the road. -17-
18. Dividing loot (200 for each) - Zaharich's directions are a little deceiving as he really means "not far from the farm that is in the north." The boulders are actually just south of the Bandit-inhabited farm/village where the cliff comes out near the road. Look for a flat boulder in front and much larger boulder behind it. The backpack on the north side of the pile. -19-
19. Controller's fingers (4) - Under the evergreen tree north of the sawmill outhouse. -12-
20. CNPP (3200 megawatts) - The fork in the road refers to the dirt road leading to the sawmill. The cluster of rocks is northeast of the rusty Lada, i.e., the group on the far right. The backpack is in the middle of them. -15-

Moonshine and the knowledge of the universe

Some of Zaharich's stashes have an item labeled Thing with no value. If you have one, you can ask him to look at it. This leads up to Zaharich asking you to find him a moonshine still in Dead City. Everything I find on the internet says the modders never finished this task. I've looked all through every building in Dead City and not found any moonshine or still. And no one at the bar is talking, either.

Find the secret bunker

You get this task by solving The trap at the Gas Station task. The forester's hut is Zaharich's place. And by north, Jekan means northeast, and by boulder he means two boulders, and by bushes he means three pine trees. But before you set out from Zaharich's place, look on your PDA and click the second part of the task to locate the bunker on your map. As you travel between the bunker and gas station, don't get too close to the Saw Mill for now or you may trigger the Get the forth part of the map task. When you find the bunker, go in and all the way to the back and talk with Arkadiy. When you explain the situation, he sends you back with the doctor and another guy, Tokarev. This completes the task and gives you the Help the "Cleaners" task.

Help the "Cleaners"

When you finish talking to the doctor, the screen goes black and then the three of you are at the Gas Station. Ask the doctor if he's ready and they follow you in. Inside the Gas Station, I recommend standing in the southeast corner of the room and let the doctor go in to see Jekan. Suddenly, a Duty squad shows up and you have to go out to talk to them. This is a good place to save. Then go inside and talk to the doctor. The correct answer is to stay behind while the rest teleported back to the bunker. As soon as you finish talking with the doctor, move to the southwest corner of the room, next to the safe, for cover. When they leave, Duty turns on you. Kill the first four and another four spawn. This does not effect your relationship with Duty, however. When you encounter them in Dark Valley or Garbage, they are still neutral. You can use the safe as a stash box, which you may need as there's plenty of loot to be had.

When you get back to the bunker, talk to Arkadiy to complete the mission. Of the options he gives you, remember that they destroy artifacts, not give them away.

Help to seriously ill stalkers

This is a good task to do along with Find out what happened with post in Darkscape. Just north of the transition point to the Wild Territory is a group of sick stalkers and a scientist named Malishev. If you go toward Army Warehouses, he sends you a message. Talk to him to find out about another scientist that's been kidnapped and held for ransom. This takes you to the south part of Darkscape, where you find the Mercs holding the good doctor. As you approach an abandoned truck in the road, you are warned to proceed slowly. This is where you stop and talk to the leader, whose guarding the doctor in the barn. You have to agree to help them with an ambush before they let you take the doctor back to the Bar. This gives you the Capture the officer task.

You now have a detonator in your inventory that sets the bomb off when you double-click it. This is a good place to save because if the officer gets killed, the mission is over and the Mercs do not release the doctor. Set the bomb off before the van reaches the other vehicles and then let the Mercs take care of the guards. Go talk to the officer to get him to go into the barn. Then, go to the southeast corner of the barn and put your primary weapon into your backpack, leaving the slot open. An APC starts down the road to the east and stops just before it reaches the first vehicle. As the Merc leader tells you to pick up the RPG, one spawns where you're standing. Pick it up, along with the second rocket and hit the APC once in the side. Then, let the Mercs finish it off with their grenades.

When all the soldiers are dead, talk to the Merc leader again to get the doctor released and some artifacts for your troubles. The Mercs let the doctor go just up the road, north of the sick stalkers back at the Bar. Talk to him to learn he's afraid of a mutant and won't move. After the conversation, a bloodsucker spawns and attacks you. Kill it and tell the doctor the bloodsucker is dead to complete the task. He goes to the sick stalkers on his own.

However, the doctor remains a target on your PDA. Go talk to him again and he tells you he needs a Hive artifact. Tell the doctor you're ready to go and you get the Find the Beehive artifact task, along with an SSP-99 Ecologist Suit and a container for the artifact. The doctor then sends you to talk to the one stalker who isn't sick, who in turn sends you to Dark Valley. In Dark Valley, the island south of the Lab X-18 building is circled on your PDA. There you'll find a dead bandit with the artifact. Put the Eco Suit on and get the artifact. Keep the suit on until you get back to the doctor. Give him the artifact and he tells you that you've been infected, too. After he gives you a shot, the doctor tells you to keep the suit and gives you some artifacts as a reward to complete the task. You can ask one of the sick stalkers how they fell, but it isn't necessary. The group soon leaves the area.

Sakharov Tasks:

Find out what happened with post in Darkscape

This is a good task to do along with Help to seriously ill stalkers. In your first conversation with Sakharov, he thanks you for helping Kruglov and asks for your help. If you agree to help, you get this task that sends you to the train tunnel in Darkscape, where you'll encounter a Controller and some zombified scientists. The modders have it set so you can't jump up on the ledge to get into the west end of the tunnel. You have to go to the east side and jump across. Just watch out for the two bloodsuckers in the east tunnel. If you ignore them, chances are they won't notice you and you can save some ammo. Step up to the first ledge, then up into the tunnel, and once more onto the tracks.

There's two spots that I've jumped from successfully so far (and have to take my exo off): sprinting along the narrow catwalk along the south side of the bridge and jumping to the bent beam, or going up the stairs on the north side of the bridge (usually need to jump up the stairs), crossing over to the south side, and sprinting along the top to jump to the other side. Either way, be ready for the Controller to come out for you from a side door on the north, just inside the west opening of the tunnel.

In addition to the Controller, there are three zombified scientists inside the doorway. When the way is clear, go to the back room to pick up a paper off the floor and loot the bodies of the two scientists that were not Zombies to download their data. Then, report back to Sakharov to complete the mission.

Examine the unknown artifact

Ask Sakharov if he has an interesting task and he tells you about a strange artifact that he wants to study. If you agree, he gives you a scanner and sends you to Darkscape. When you get to the sawmill, park the car near the sawmill or Zaharich's cabin and go in on foot. Make sure you have plenty of +health artifacts on your belt. The artifact is located northeast of Zaharich's cabin, about half way between the sawmill and Zaharich and just a little north. If you sprint after it, the artifact goes so far and teleport back into the area where you found it. If you watch it, the artifact tends to roll east, toward the sawmill. My strategy is to approach from the west and try to get where the artifact spawns, continuously press the action key (F). When the artifact rolls to the eastern edge and teleports back to the center, you can grab it.

Here's what should happen when you pick the artifact up:

If, on the other hand, two dark colored chimeras spawn, the task is broken (they're not suppose to show up until later). However, if you've replace the gamedata folder and the chimeras spawn, reload your last save and try again to see if the timer starts. Apparently, the mod doesn't know if this is the first time you picked up the artifact, or the second.

Anomaly field walkthrough

1. Turn northeast toward the large hardwood tree with an evergreen on the south side of it. Go to the trunk of the evergreen, and then to the hardwood. Use bolts to determine where the anomalies are.
2. Turning east, there's a Springboard on the right and Electro on the left, with a bush directly east. Walk to the bush, but not past it.
3. Check for a safe path to the evergreen northeast of the bush, and go around the north side of the bush to the edge of evergreen branches.
4. Use bolts to find a southeast path through the evergreen branches until you can see another hardwood tree to the northeast.
5. Go to the hardwood tree, then turn southeast to the bush on the right (south) of the boulders.
6. Go to that bush, and turn to the right (south) toward the next evergreen.
7. Go to the trunk of that tree, turn northeast, and go to the trunk of the next evergreen.
8. Turn east so that you pass on the south side of the next hardwood.

You know you're out of it when there's a flash of white light and the anomalies are gone.

When you get back to Yantar and report to Sakharov, he gives you a case to put the artifact in. With the case from Sakharov, go back to Darkscape and locate the artifact again. But make sure to bring some heavy firepower.

This time, you must drop the suit case so that the artifact will get drawn to it. Drop the case in the path of the rolling artifact. Then, get out an RPG or grenade launcher and take cover behind one of the nearby boulders to the west. Once the artifact gets sucked into the case, there is another flash of light, and two electrified chimeras spawn. If you're behind a boulder, they may not see you, giving you the advantage. As long as the chimeras don't see you, you can fire away at them. Kill the chimeras, pick up the case and go back to Sakharov. Later in the game, if you ask him about it, Sakharov tells you that the artifact is lost and to keep an eye out for it.

Get a part of a monster body

Ask Sakharov for a job and he offers, "The Bunker of Doctor Moreau": One, two, three, four, Soldiers marching here'n forth... Tell him you are up for it and you get the task. This is the first in a series of getting mutant parts, much like Hunting trophies. Read the task on your PDA by toggling the map and see that it's a Snork's foot.

Materials for research

Ask Sakharov if he needs any materials for his research and he gives you a list of artifacts and mutant parts that you can collect while you move about the Zone. This task does not come up on your PDA and the list only stays in your message history for a few hours (game time). So, you may want to take a screenshot of it. When you have one or more items, ask Sakharov if there is a special order for you. He gives you the current list. Tell him you want to check your stock and a dialog box opens. For each of the requested items you have, replace the zero with a one and give Sakharov the item. The reward is about three times the usual sale price of each item. Also, the list changes from time to time (about 20 hours game time) and Sakharov is only interested in the current items.

Yantar's secret

Chuk is an experienced stalker standing next to an operational Goatling on the south side of the mobile lab enclosure. Talk to him and he tells you about his friend Figa that went to the factory and never came back. Tell him you'll ask for Sakharov's help. Then ask Sakharov if it's possible to fool Zombies so they don't attack. Long story - short, Sakharov gives you a flask to get water out of the swamp. Go to the spot on the minimap, open your inventory, and double-click the flask to fill it. Bring the flask back to Sakharov and he makes up serum that temporarily makes you a zombie.

Take the serum to Chuk, who tells you to take it first. I think you're supposed to get a task update when you talk to Chuk, but it doesn't happen. Double-click the flask again and you become a zombie with a timer starting at 7:00 to tell you when the serum wears off. Fortunately, you're at the front gate of the factory so the other stalkers don't shoot you. Enter the gate and go into the building on the left. Figa is thrashing on the floor. Go and talk to him. He tries to talk, but then dies and you get a task update to find Figa's stash in the Wild Territory.

Sometimes Chuk stays behind and sometimes he then heads back to the bunker. Unfortunately for Chuk, the serum doesn't wear off and the Duty guards gun him down. So, whether he stays or not, you never see him again. If you have enough time, this is a great opportunity to collect any stashes that are located in the factory complex. Just make sure you're outside the gate when the timer ends, but not in sight of the stalkers. I suggest waiting it out in the small brick building near the tractor-trailer.

Figa's dying words are, "Cache... Territory... Bar, where the fuzz... fuzz burns... painfully... Big safe..." On the map, the area Figa is referring to is circled, which is north of the water tower at the Bar. The area inside the fence is loaded with Burnt Fuzz, as Figa mentioned. Only these have flakes that drift down that are powerful enough to take out whatever suit you're wearing. For example, a PSO SKAT-M looses about 80% on the first contact. The best time to do this is at low light, but not in the rain. Use your headlamp to see the flakes.

1. Starting from the north wall of the water tower, there is an open panel in the fence, third from the right. Staying to the right of the opening, step inside the fence, turn right, and walk along the fence until you're between it and a structure with three large pipes coming out of the top.
2. Jump onto one of the ribs, or ledges, of the structure, and then on top.
3. Move to the right (east) pipe and walk north until you reach the bend.
4. Turn northeast to face an area on the ground that is clear of brush near the silo and jump. You should be able to see the safe in the southeast corner and walk directly to it.
5. Empty the safe to get the Yantar's secret: Find the O-21 sample sending you back to Yantar. But first, you have to get out of the Burnt Fuzz area.

1. Turn back toward the spot where you landed when you jumped off the pipe, and walk to it.
2. Staying against the silo, follow it around on the north side until you're between it and the next one.
3. Move to the next silo and stay against it as you move around the south side.
4. When you are facing west, go straight.
5. When you reach the north end of the cement wall, turn southwest toward the southeast corner of the next structure with three pipes coming out of the top.
6. From there, turn south by southeast to face the door of the Arena and go through another opening in the fence.

Figa's note says to look in the bus near the factory entrance for his stash. There's a small stash box inside at the front with two documents: Note from Figa's stash and Professor Thompson's diary. The note also says it was about 22:00 when he saw the glow near the compressor building. Actually, you need to find the artifact before 22:00. The earliest I've found it is 20:00, but it sometimes doesn't show until 21:01. Also, there's really no glow that I can see.

The easiest way to get there from the front gate is to turn right (north) and go between the overhead crane and the workshop (single-story building running parallel to the overhead crane to its east). Follow the road west past the overhead crane and then continue north. When you make the turn north, you'll see a large vertical tank with several large pipes and stairs. Go under the stairs and look south to see the artifact on some planks under a large pipe and next to a wooden crate. Pick it up to get an update that sends you back to Lab X-18 in Dark Valley. The diary is rather lengthy, but gives the impression of how Controllers mutated, and provides a history of an O'Consciousness Project.

Back at X-18, there's no compound or anything else that I've been able to find. Talk to Dead Stalker again and he tells you to destroy the artifact. If you agree (which is your only option), the task is updated to Destroy the O-21 sample. Dead Stalker describes the place to do this as the anomaly pool in Darkscape. In Darkscape, go to the edge of the pool with half a bus beside it (as in Dead Stalker's description). Open your inventory and double-click the artifact to destroy it. Then go back to Dead Stalker and report.

X-16

Not much is different other than a few Burers and Plague Rats. There's a slight change in the path leading to the large room with the brain. But it's linear and easy to follow. You enter at the second level, requiring you to go down a level to get to the first switch. You also must return to this level to leave. And Ghost's body is in a different location that the vanilla game. He's just inside the door on the right in the room where you fight the Controller. When you exit the underground, you can now move between Yantar and Agroprom. The transition point is south of the swamp.

Lukash Optional Missions

Prisoners at the Radar

Reply to the first question with, "Nothing much, really." and then you can ask him why he's sad to get this task. He tells you his best scout is missing and you agree to look for him in Radar. When you get to Radar, take the first road off to the right (north) after the first four groups of Monolith.

Finding the lost group is no problem as they're just standing behind the gate to the tunnel. However, when you talk to the leader you learn they've been fighting off mutants and haven't been able to leave. Just about this time you hear a beep and the leader warns you another wave of mutants is coming. This is the first of three, and I suggest saving between each. Go to the guard shack and when you see movement down the road, toss a grenade or two. If you're timing is right, you'll take out the boar before they get to the gate. Go back to the leader and talk some more before another wave, this time it's Snorks. Same as before, you can take them out with a couple of grenades.

Back to the leader again, and he mentions some land mines. If you intend to use the mines, quit the conversation there, or you'll trigger the next wave before you have time to get them. You can plant the mines in the road for the next wave, this time it's Pseudogiants. Go back to the leader and finish your conversation to trigger the attack. If you have an RPG, two shots is about all you have time for, but it slows them down enough that the others can finish them off. When you talk to the leader again, he tells you about the door in the tunnel. Go look at the door and enjoy the show. As you leave the tunnel, place a mine where the tunnel turns, and then come back to the leader for the final attack. Although, in my last playthrough the mine didn't go off after several attempts.

This time you're attacked by a Supercontroller coming from the tunnel that you just explored. You get the task, "Wipe out the mute before he'll turn scouts in zombies." The only weapon you can hold on to is a knife and you're suppose to fight the Supercontroller. If the mine doesn't save you the trouble, sprint to either side of the tunnel door, wait for the Supercontroller to come to you, and start stabbing it. When it's down the task is completed, and search the body to get an anomalous skull. This is key to the Klondike of artifacts: last spurt task. Talk to the leader again and he gives you what he can for your help. If you have the Get the fifth part of the map task, the leader gives you the flash drive. Let Lukash know you found his men and he gives you a suit and some supplies. You can also give the skull to Lukash and get the key.

Deal with the snitch

This task comes when you complete the Destroy the Duty company, which you can do without Duty turning on you if you don't actually shoot during the attack). Lukash tells you he's got a snitch that he wants you to silence, but he also wants to know who the snitch is snitching to. Go to the farmstead north of the village. Quietly go up to the barn to hear the snitch contact his friends to tell them the coast is clear. After he radios them, you can pop him. Then, wait for the four Mercs coming in from the west. Once they're down, report back to Lukash.

Get a BTR for protection of the Barrier

After completing the Deal with the snitch task, ask Lukash if he has any important tasks for you and he ask you to go to Dead City to find the military's abandoned BTRs. But first you need to talk to Screw, who is behind the headquarters building. Screw tells you about the key that you need for the BTRs and gives you the Find the electronic key for the BTR task and updates the Get a BTR for protection of the Barrier task. If the key task updates right away, check your inventory to see if one of the flash drives is actually a key. If you've already done the Owner of the Dead City task, chances are that you picked the key up when you got parts for the bomb.

If you don't have the key yet, go to Dead City and check the map for the crash site northeast of where you spawn. To get back to Dead City from Army Warehouses, use the transition point in the northwest corner of the map. You have to clear out some Mercenaries, and there's a dealer there, too. Then, go back to the bridge where you spawned from Yantar and go west, making sure you are on the south side of the fence. You will come to a pond where the BTR sits. Approach either side near the front and enter the vehicle with the action key just as you would a car. The Find the electronic key for the BTR task is complete and you now have the Nothing works task. Exit the BTR the same as a car, by turning sideways and hit action.

Back to the Army Warehouses to talk to Screw again. The closes transition point is northeast of your position where you escorted Minor. Be aware that you can also use the transition by the bunker to go URR > Dark Valley > Army Warehouses. This may be shorter if you are combining the two tasks.

Tell Screw you found the BTR and at the end of the conversation the Nothing works task is complete and you get the Find a battery for the BTR task, which takes you to the Garbage. The battery weighs 14 kg. so be sure you can carry that much weight before you go. Keep in mind that eventually, you'll be bringing the BTR to Lukash, so use a nearby stash if you need to.

Along the south side of the Vehicle graveyard are three red trucks. The battery is in the front seat of the middle truck. Go back to Screw and tell him that you found a battery. He tells you that it will take about six hours to get it ready. This is a good time to sleep, hunt for artifacts, or clear the bloodsucker village. When the battery is ready, Screw gives you a can of petrol and a repair kit, too. 27.5 kg. in all. Now back to the BTR.

When you get to the BTR, stand behind the left tail light to add the petrol (same keyboard command as a Goatling). Next, open your inventory, double-click the tool kit, and click car repair. Now move up either side and enter the vehicle. The Find a battery for the BTR task is complete, but you now have the The BTR computer is faulty task. And yes, you guessed it, back to Screw.

When you tell Screw that there's another problem, he sends you to the Agroprom Institute to find a control module. You now have the Get a new computer for the BTR task. Only, instead of the Institute, go to the factory because there are no BTR parts at the Institute. At least, none that I could find. Go to the southeast building in the complex, third floor, and find a trader. He will sell you the computer for 35,000 RU. I don't know how you're supposed to know to do this, but if it hadn't been for a video I happened upon, I'd have never figured it out on my own.

Back to Dead City one last time and enter the vehicle to complete the Get a new computer for the BTR task. Now drive the BTR back to the northeast corner of the Army Warehouses map. Take the BTR up the hill near the captain to complete the task. Talk to the captain and he tells you to go back and talk to Lukash. Notice that Freedom is now friendly to you. When you talk to Lukash, he gives you some really nice (and heavy) gear. Be sure you can take on about 70kg before you talk to him.

Bring the bulletproof vest

Lukash sends you to Yantar to find a soldier's corpse and retrieve the vest. The soldier is actually Sergeant Gurevich in the vanilla game, who has a Healing Beril suit and lies near the X16 entrance. Only, this Beril suit is what Lukash is after. Grab the suit and head back to Lukash to complete the task.

Vendetta

Lukash asks for a bloodsucker tentacle, which you can usually get in the village.

Help Psycho

You may want to do this during the Well-wisher: Take the case task. The Insane stalker from the Freedom faction is actually very safe and you can talk to him. I usually find safe passage through the mines by starting at the Freedom Base front gate and going east along the wall all the way to the fence. Turn left (north) and follow the fence, and turn left again and stay along the fence until you get to the cabin. The radiation is very high, so any food you have in your backpack is ruined.

You can offer to take him to Sakharov for help and he becomes your friend. As you leave, go out the way you came, but don't get too far ahead as he might go into the mines and you fail the task. He follows you to the Wild Territory, but I can't get him to go past the train station platform. However, if I continue on, he's waiting for me when I spawn in Yantar. Another route is to pick up a car at the Bar (I usually have two or three Goatlings sitting there by now) and drive through Garbage and Agroprom.

Take the Insane stalker to Sakharov, who claims he cannot help the poor guy. When the conversation is over, the stalker is waiting outside. Go talk to him and he ends the conversation by killing himself. Loot his body and take the flash drive. His body then vanishes. His flash drive contents can be found on your PDA's Diary Log page under Found PDA. The next time you sleep, you awake to find a note in your hand and a Morpheus artifact in your inventory. Double-click the note to download it to the same Diary section.

Help Freedom at the radar

This task comes from Max, who stands in the open yard east of the mess hall. Ask him if he has any personal errands for you and he tells you about a rookie that went off to prove himself, and they haven't heard from him since. To get to the helicopter, which is your starting point to look for the rookie, you have to go through the fence where the road turns west and the Monolith fighter was on a platform over a trailer. Follow the rock formation around until you get to the crash site. There's plenty of mutants, so stay close to the rocks for cover. Once you get near the helicopter, you should see the rookie on your minimap somewhere south of the crash site. He stands on a rock, but comes down to talk to you. You just have to escort him back to the Army Warehouses transition point. As you near the check point, I recommend you save because you don't always get a mission update like you should, which is just before you get to the truck on its side. Talk to the rookie, then go talk to Max to complete the task.

Well-wisher: Take the case

As you take your first steps in the Red Forest, you get a message telling you to go back to Yantar for a case. This is a detour from the original storyline, but one you must take. So, go back to Yantar and to the machine shop on the right side of the gate to the factory complex. The shorter way is Army Warehouses > Bar > Wild Territory. The safer way is Army Warehouses > Bar > Garbage > Agroprom, which opened up when you completed the X-16 task. However, if you have the Prisoners at the Radar task, continue on to complete it first to avoid an extra trip. On your way back through Army Warehouses, you may want to take on the Help Psycho task, too.

When you get to Yantar, go in the front gate of the factory complex and turn right (north). There's usually three or four Snorks waiting for you and there's, what looks like, a wood burner outside of the west wall of the machine shop. Jump up on there to deal with the Snorks. Continue north and around to the open door of the shop. Go inside and note that there are mine sticks on the floor. Stay against the west wall and move south to the bench, where you'll find a note and a brief case. When you pick it up, you get a message from Well-wisher about booby traps and codes. A Monolith squad has been dispatched and is waiting outside the gate. If you're lucky, any stalkers nearby will take them out for you. One of the Monolith carries a PDA with a message to look for you.

The note sends you back to Strelok's hideout in Agroprom. So, use the transition point in the southwest corner of the map to get there. Once you're back in Strelok's hideout, go to the far (east) wall and pick up the note on the ledge at the end of the couch. This gives you the code to the brief case, but only part of the code to the Brain Scorcher is in it. Use the code in the note to open the brief case and you now have to find Messenger at the Army Warehouses. When you spawn in the Army Warehouses, your PDA shows the messenger in the nearby farm house. However, when you enter the house, you get a message that he's moved to Dead City.

You get to Dead City by going through the factory complex in Yantar, or the northwest corner of Amry Warehouses (after you take out the Mercs that are camped there). You may want to bring some anti-personnel mines with you. In Yantar, go to the back (west) of the factory complex just as you did to get to Lab X-16. Instead of going into the X-16 building, turn west and go through the gate to get to the Dead City transition point. Yantar spawns you at the south end of the city and Army Warehouses at the east end.

When you spawn, you get a prompt from Cheburashka, then another from an unknown Stalker. First, there are two Controllers here that you should take care of to make life a little easier. From Yantar, go straight down the road until you get to the bus stop on the right. From Army Warehouses, go straight down the road to the second street on the left that runs along the east side of the broken-down apartment building and turn left (south). The Controllers are in the building with the tall pillars in front. You can take them by surprise by sprinting up to the door and tossing a grenade or two in. Otherwise, use the bus stop shelter or rubble as cover to attack with grenades, RPGs, etc. There's one more Controller to the northeast that you can deal with now or later.

With the Controllers out of the way, head for the building marked on your map to the west. The biggest problem I have with this next part is that Minor tends to wonder around the building and get himself killed. This is a good place to save in case this happens to you. Even if you start defending the building against the next attack, reloading a save part way through can also have Minor spawning on the ground floor instead of upstairs where he's safe.

Once you enter the building you can't exit. So before going in, set one or two mines outside each of the three doors, which are located at the southeast, southwest, and northwest corners of the building. You only have time for one or two mines at each door, and be sure to leave yourself safe entry into the building. And don't get too close to the building before laying out the mines or you'll get sucked in. If you see a Poltergeist on the outside of the building, take it out. As you enter the north-side doorway, you should see a note on the floor near the safe. If it's not there, look around because the Poltergeist sometimes throws it around. I once found it on top of the vending machine at the front door. Another time, the Poltergeist threw it out the front door (you can still complete the task without the note). Put a mine in this room and go up the stairs.

Talk to Minor who tells you the building is a spiral trap and you can't get out. However, the note you picked up has a clue about books. But first, you have to fight off all the Zombies. Use the sofa to see out the window and toss a grenade or two as they cross the street. You may be able to jump and see them coming toward the front of the building, too. Once the Zombies are in the building, the best spot is the landing overlooking the stairs in front. Just be sure to periodically check the hallway to the east for Zombies coming in that way.

When the Zombies stop coming, start collecting books. As you go through the building, Minor is going to ask for a weapon and ammo, so if you find one among the Zombies that's not too far gone, keep it for him:

1. The first book is on the north side of the room where you meet Minor, on the floor by the shelves.
2. At the top of the stairs, go west down the hallway and into the first room on the right. There's book under the bed next to the door. This one sometimes gets thrown around the room, too. Also, for some reason, it isn't always visible until you look at it (much like corpses).

   

3. Next, head down the front stairs and to the left. Continue to the room with the phone on the desk. If you're collecting records, there's one next to the phone, or it may have been thrown on the floor by the Poltergeist. Next to the desk is a room with a stove and a cupboard. You can't open the cupboard, but you can pick up the book inside.
4. Continue down the hallway that turns left, there's a bathroom opposite the southwest door. Go into the bathroom all the way, stand on the toilet, and jump up to find the forth book in the tank.
5. Go back to the room with the safe, through the room with the green sofas, down the hallway on the left and turn right. The first room on the left is another bathroom. Pick up the book on the floor next to the toilet.

Now put the books into the safe. The safe vanishes and you can now leave the building. Go back upstairs and talk to Minor. He wants to go to the Army Warehouses before he gives you the rest of the code. The transition point to the Army Warehouses is east of the building you're in. Save before leaving the building in case one of you trips a mine that didn't go off yet. Then, go out the front (north) door and east. Along the way, you encounter a few more Zombies and a squad of Monolith, which will be to the north. So, keep an eye on your bioradar. Lead Minor to the transition point but stop at the bridge as soon as you get a task update. Talk to Minor and he'll give you the rest of the code. Just as a side note, the Dead City is definitely worth exploring and has a few more optional tasks.

Klondike of artifacts: last spurt

You must complete the Prisoners at the Radar task to obtain the anomalous skull. Take the skull to Lukash and follow this conversation string:

1. Hello, are you Lukash, leader of Freedom?
2. Nothing much, really.
3. Listen, I took this from something I killed while rescuing your guys. Are you interested?

In exchange for the skull, Lukash gives you coordinates for the following transition points to URR:

• Northeast corner of Dark Valley.
• Door opposite the bunker in Dead City.
• Door in tunnel where you kill the Supercontroller in Red Forest.

The Artifact-key is stashed in the train car at the north end of the tunnel, nearest the Dark Valley transition point. To get to Dead City, go south and follow the tunnel to the right. The Klondike location is the Space anomaly in the northeast part of the city between the appartment buildings. Before going into the anomaly, spread out a few mines, leaving a path to escape to one of the buildings for cover. Just be sure to save a few mines if you haven't completed the Well-wisher: Take the case task yet. Go into the anomaly to trigger the Klondike. The anomaly begins to break apart and then is gone, leaving several unique artifacts all around the depression. This completes the task and triggers an attack by both Zombified Stalkers and Civil Zombies from east and west.

As I see it, your best options are:

• Use the BTR from the Get a BTR for protection of the Barrier task.
• There's an opening in the fence that runs along the north of the city. From the anomaly, go around the east end of the north building, through the fence, and down the hill. Oddly, only the Civil Zombies follow you through the fence. Continue to the northwest bank where the boat is. The zombies will turn around and go back to the city.
• Try for one of the buildings, go up to the landing over the door, and jump through the window to the top of the awning. This keeps the Civil Zombies off your back while you deal with the Zombified Stalkers. As long as you're on the awning, the Civil Zombies stay outside the building.

Find the rest of the anomalous household items

If you scout the apartment buildings in Dead City, you're bound to find some household items that have become artifacts. Picking up the first one you find gives you the task to find the others. As far as I know, anyone will buy them, but you have to take them to Sakharov to complete the task. Here are the locations, starting from north of the bridge:

• Kettle - Northern apartment building on the north side of the bridge > east entrance > first floor > center-right door > green tiled room.
• Bottle - Center building of three east of gym > west entrance > top floor > center-right door > bathtub.
• Plate - Southern building of three east of gym > east entrance > top floor > center-left door > green tiled room. In one playthrough I could not see or pick up the plate. My Veles showed it, but there was only, what looked like, heat waves until I walked over the spot and then it appeared.
• Jar - Gym roof. Use the ladder on the outside north wall at the east corner.
• Doll - L-shaped building west of town square > west-wing entrance > attic > go east and drop into hallway. This building also contains the Midas artifact, which is 60 kg. and worth five million. From the doll, go through the doorway on the right and to the right side of the room. If you have trouble finding it, use an artifact detector to locate the doll. You should be able to see the glowing artifact and dead bodies to the right. Drop down onto the top of the wall and walk along the wall to get to the artifact.
• Spoon - Southwest building > south entrance > first floor > far-left door > toilet.

When you have all six items, you get a the Bring all the found anomalous household items to the scientists task. Ask Sakharov to look at something you found to complete the task.

Owner of the Dead City

Talk to Bosun and suffer through the long story about the scientists. Then talk to Prokhorov, who should be sitting right by the bar, and he gives you his lengthy version of the story. When the conversation is finally over, you have the task. The first part of the task is to find the bodies of the three scientists with information. You don't have to find all nine, just the ones with the data. You get an update when you search the bodies having the data (otherwise, there's no way to know). Here are the locations of the nine in all:

1. North of the bridge in the farm house southwest of the water tower.
2. Top floor office of the gym. Use the southeast stairs. In the north room of the ground floor are some UPSm "Cist" suits. If you don't have a closed respirator suit, you'll need one of these later.
3. In the storm drain east of the gym.
4. Top floor of the northeast apartment building, second door from the right.
5. Second floor of the T-shaped building in the southern part of the city. This is the building with the columns in front and two Controllers when you first entered the city.
6. The cellar of the farmhouse in the far southwest corner of the map.
7. Southwest apartment building > south entrance > top floor > left-center door > bath tub.
8. The attic of the north house of two in the southwest corner of the city.
9. L-shaped building west of town square that's partially demolished > west entrance > attic > go east and drop into hallway. This is the same place as the anomalous Doll household item.

The next part of the task is to find the Master's den. Look on the map to find the circled area just outside the city, directly west of the gym. Go to the northwest corner of the city to find a fallen tree and a hole in the fence. Go through the fence and north down the hill, past the dead bodies on the minimap, turn south and find the mine opening. As you go in, you get a message that your suit can't handle the radiation and you have to go back to Prokhorov. Talk to him and he adjusts the helmet that Sakharov gave you (which takes 30 game-time minutes because he keeps stopping to talk). This gives you a new task, Explore the Master's den. This is easier with a closed respirator suit because of being under water. If you don't have one, there are three UPSm "Cist" suits on the ground floor of the gym.

Now you can go into the mine, under water, and follow the passage to find Vasiliy, the zombified scientist on his knees. As you go along, your air supply goes down. There's plenty of air to loot corpses and explore the area. If you need to, jump up to put your head above the surface to recharge your air supply to 100%. Talk to Vasiliy and have a conversation with the Master. Now go back to Prokhorov again and report that you made it into the den. He decides to my a bomb and sends you to the crashed chopper, giving you the Craft a thermite bomb task. The chopper wreckage is visible on the map, located in the southeast corner. Before you leave the bunker, make sure you can carry 40 kg. There's a safe/stash box by the pool table to put extra gear. If you haven't visited the crash site yet, there may be a bloodsucker or two lurking around, and possibly a couple of Mercs.

The landing gear rim is near the front of the chopper and the aircraft skin is in between the two halves of the fuselage. Take the parts back to Prokhorov and wait for him to make the bomb. He says it will take about four hours, but it's more like six. This is a good time to complete the Find the rest of the anomalous household items task and you should have enough bolts to turn in for the Find the anomalous bolts task. When you get the task update from Prokhorov, ask him if the bomb is ready. He explains that you have about 2:30 delay before the bomb goes off. Also, the bomb weighs 30 kg., so keep your inventory light.

Before you go sprinting off to the Master, let me explain how this next bit plays out so you can increase your odds of completing the mission. And don't expect to do it on your first try, or even your first dozen tries. Anyway, the only way to plant the bomb is to walk up to Vasiliy and the bomb is pulled from your backpack. Immediately, things start spinning and you are transported to random parts of the map, where there's probably one or more Zombies waiting to cap you. I've seen videos where they take some bi-psy-zon and vodka, but that doesn't seem to help. The best weapon for this task is a PKM.

When you reach the control room with the computer terminals, walk up on top of one so that your head is above water, pull out your weapon, and save. When you're ready, walk up to Vasiliy until the bomb deploys itself and a timer starts and 2:28. Turn south and get as far as you can before things start spinning and you get transported to another part of the map. Kill any Zombies, quick save, and then reload the save. This seems to stop the spinning when you're teleported back to the Master's den, which happens after a few seconds. Just keep moving toward the exit of the den. It seems to be a matter of luck to get teleported near the exit.

If you're not out of the den when the timer runs out, GAME OVER. If you make it out, things go black, and then come back again. It is now safe to go back in the den if you want. Otherwise, head back to Prokhorov and talk to him. Now he wants you to escort him to the Cordon Checkpoint. When you get there, the task is complete and Prokhorov gives you some nice parting gifts, including a becon so most of the Military see you as friendly. However, some soldiers are neutral and may fire on you. So, keep an eye on your minimap when approaching them.

Marshes

You must complete the Help the deserter to open the Marshes map. This is not a sandbox map, meaning that you have to follow roads and paths with little room to explore. Also, trying this without a bioradar may be near impossible.

Catch a unique bloodsucker

Doc has decide to retire and made a home in the pump station. Offer to help him with his new hobby of helping mutants and he gives you a crossbow with three taser bolts. You must find and shoot the bloodsucker, and then bring it back to Doc before it wakes up. First, save, and then go south from the Pump station until you see the bloodsucker on your bioradar. Remember Doc's instructions and stay at least 15 meters back, which is the smallest circle on your bioradar.

Because the map is linear, it's very difficult to get a clear shot and you may just be able to see its head. Move from side to side as much as the map lets you. You might find an opening in the reeds for a clear shot. A good shot will drop the bloodsucker right away and you get a task update. If you hit it and it doesn't go down, reload your save and try again (this task is buggy and it may take a few tries). Go to the bloodsucker, pick it up, and carry it back to Doc to complete the task. You get to keep the crossbow.

As you leave, Doc may call you back and offer the Catch a unique pseudo dog task. Same task as before, only you must stay 20 meters away. Find the dog to the east (toward the Agroprom transition), shoot it, and drag it back to Doc for another reward.